There's Only So Much Time
by brickboat
Summary: [Sequel to Get Well Soon] It's not knowing too much that's the problem. It's what you do about it.
1. Don't Ask Questions

**A/N:** HEY GUYS GUESS WHOSE BACK IT'S ME I'M ALIVE.

Also this is the official sequel to Get Well Soon, so read that (and Observance) if you haven't already.

* * *

The provisional license exam had come and gone.

Almost everyone in Class A passed, her included. It was tough doing it as first years grouped with second and third, but they all managed to get past the first round. And the two who failed the second were going to take remedial lessons (and definitely going to pass, because it was _Bakugou and Todoroki_ , for crying out loud).

So they celebrated accordingly. Instead of cooking or eating whatever was in the fridge, they ordered pizza and chowed down. Sero threw on a movie. Satou whipped up some desserts. Everyone chatted and talked about the test and what they were going to do with their licenses now that they had them. An outside observer probably would've thought it was just a written test, with all the energy they still had.

But after an hour or two they began to trickle out. Some of them wanted to call their parents and friends outside U.A.. Others just reached the end of their second wind. The more polite stayed to clean up and put away their leftovers before heading to bed. And after the movie ended, the last remaining few got up and trudged upstairs, leaving the common area empty.

And the minuted ticked by. Everyone was back in their rooms, including Jirou. She was in her pajamas, laying on her bed and scrolling through Facebook. Her body was exhausted, but her mind hadn't caught up; so she went to her go-to time-waster. It was either that or study; and she knew what she _didn't_ want to be doing right now.

So, phone it was.

Said phone was specially designed to have two audio jacks in it, and she had a lobe stuck in each one. The music playing didn't _completely_ drown out the surrounding noise, but it was loud enough that she could at least ignore it. Given how it was the middle of the night, and that everyone was in bed, and that everyone the building was a teenager, there were definitely certain things that would go on that she did _not_ need to know about. And she'd like to keep it that way.

If there was one thing she missed about living with her folks, it was the healthy layer of sound insulation in every wall and floor of the house. There was obviously the padding behind the drywall and soundboards under the floors in the dorms that let everyone live together with _out_ having to hear each other's every move, but there weren't any measures to stop _her_ from hearing those things. U.A. knew how far her quirk reached ever since told everyone about All Might's sickness, and the buildings were only put up a few weeks ago. So it was pretty weird that they'd leave it so open: They were able to soundproof certain areas of the school now, so why not just build that soundproofing directly into the dorms as a whole?

Heck, why not just put it in _her_ room?

There was also the fact that she was on the third floor with no one underneath her, and in the closest room to the elevator. Someone had to be the one staying in that room, obviously. And all the rooms could have just been randomly assigned. But if it was, it'd be a real coincidence that room to the one person who could hear a stranger sneak in on the first floor. Especially since it would let her take less time to get there than any of the other girls.

 _But,_ there were no intruders. And hopefully there would never be any intruders. U.A. had some of the best security in the entire country: If someone even tried to pass through the front gates they'd get chomped by the doors. And there was probably some measure to stop anyone who tried to scale or jump over the wall circling the campus. Even with the spike in crime, her and the other students were safer than ever.

Man, why was she thinking like that? Must've been the fatigue. Pretty sure she wasn't the only one whose mind went to weird places when she needed sleep.

Anyway, the only things she ever heard were the sounds of everyone's daily routines. On her side, none of the girls made much noise – something she really appreciated. Hagakure would chat with her friends from middle school. Tsuyu would check in on her siblings. Ashido would play video games (instead of studying, which made her grades no surprise). Nothing to worry about.

And the boys weren't much different. Iida would study. Kouda would play with his rabbit. Tokoyami would read or talk with his quirk. Mineta would... well... she wasn't sure, actually; his dorm was a weird dead zone and any sound that came from it was extremely muffled. She wondered what the heck he could possibly be doing in there that would have that effect.

Er- best not to think too hard about it.

But regardless, the fact of the matter is that she could listen in on pretty much everything that happened in the building if she really wanted to. And she had to take her own precautions to _not_ hear something she shouldn't by accident. Which was kinda ridiculous considering where they were.

Also rude. They weren't in the main school building. They were _home_. They should be able to let their guards down without having to worry about someone potentially listening in on their every move and conversation. Kaminari was still the only one who knew just how far her hearing extended (kinda surprising, actually, given how much of a chatterbox he was), and even he didn't know she could hear them all there. She told him before the training camp incident that there were certain areas of the school she couldn't hear anymore; he probably assumed the dorms were the same way now. And she wasn't going to tell him otherwise if she could help it.

She glanced at the time. She should really stop thinking. It was already 23:27. They had to get up for the start of the new semester tomorrow and she was already gonna be tired. Better not make it any worse.

So she put the phone up on the headboard shelf.

She'd already taken a headcount, and no one left the building after.

Everyone was accounted for.

There was nothing to worry about.

She could go to sleep now.

She squeezed her eyes shut, and drifted off in a sea of melodies.

* * *

She wasn't sure how much later it was when she woke up.

Or why, for that matter. Jirou wasn't the heaviest sleeper, but she was used to the sounds people would make throughout the night. Her brain would filter it out with the rest of the ambient noise. You'd think the extra fatigue from the license exam would have her out cold.

But she wasn't. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. Her phone was still playing. She unplugged her jacks and pressed them to the wall. There had to be something out of the ordinary.

And there they were: footsteps on the first floor.

That would do it. Everyone was supposed to be on the second floor or above this late at night. They had their own bathroom. They had their own fridge. Not to mention they (her included) were all exhausted from the test today There was no reason for anyone to be down there now.

And based on the gait, their owner was... Bakugou?

...

What?

Why?

Had she missed something earlier? She vaguely remembered him sounding annoyed, but that was Bakugou – he was _always_ annoyed, angry, irritated, or some other adjective in that general area (even if it _was_ a little different different than normal). But she'd paid attention to the movie and conversations she was having over anyone else's. So if there was something else wrong, she didn't know about it.

The steps stopped at the front entrance. He opened it and left, shutting the door behind him.

He went down the cement steps outside, and sat on the bench next to them.

So he wanted some fresh air? Okay. Cool. Kinda weird (seeing as they all had a balcony they could easily use that for), but not the worst thing he could do.

The ding of the elevator grabbed her attention. Another pair of footsteps stepped out onto the first floor.

They belonged to... Midoriya?

Okay, now that was _two_ people who were down there for no reason.

Midoriya walked out and shut the door behind him. He descended the steps as well, but didn't sit next Bakugou. Instead, Bakugou got up, and they began to walk away from the dorm.

What the hell?!

Jirou threw herself off the bed and stumbled out the door to her balcony, almost knocking over her drum set in the process.

Bakugou and Midoriya headed towards the main building. And a few moments later they passed behind the trees. She couldn't see them at that angle. They were out of her line of sight.

But she could hear them, at least.

" _Kacchan...! How far are we going?"_ There wasn't anyone else outside, so it wasn't hard to make out Midoriya's voice in the open air. _"We're not supposed to be out at night."_

Bakugou didn't say anything.

" _Hey."_ Midoriya tried to get his attention again.

Bakugou didn't respond.

Midoriya didn't say anything else.

Jirou considered yelling out at them and asking what the heck was going on. There had to be a reason for it. Even though they weren't sticklers for the rules, it was _common sense_ not to just wander around in the middle of the night, even if they were staying on campus. They had a curfew – no late night strolls allowed. Couldn't they wait until tomorrow?

Actually- where _were_ they going?

They weren't in her field of view anymore, but she could at least hear the general direction they were headed in based on their footsteps. Though that wasn't going to work once they got far-enough away. They weren't in the main building; this was open air. She wouldn't be able to sit back and passively listen in on what was going on – after a certain distance she wouldn't be able to make out what they were saying; a little more, and no more footsteps; a little more, and a light breeze would be all it took to render them essentially invisible.

So what, should she follow them? Kind of extreme; but being on the third floor would let her jump down without hurting herself, given their fall training. She could follow them out of sight easy with no one else on campus walking around. She'd have to actively stalk them, which would mean she'd have to risk getting caught by a security robots patrolling campus.

Hah. What was she, a secret agent? That would never work.

On the other hand, she could just stay at the front of the dorm building. With no one else outside and the walkways being connected, she could easily plug into the cement and follow their movements wherever they went, even if she couldn't hear what they said.

But what would even be the point? It wasn't like they were going to leave campus (she hoped – the front gate would probably stop them).

And whatever the reason was they left the dorms – to talk or train or fight or whatever; it was something so private that they would risk getting in trouble just to have no one else around. It'd probably be for the best that they didn't have anyone spying on them.

She leaned against the railing. A small breeze passed through. It felt nice, but she wasn't sure why she didn't just go back inside.

Explosions began to sound off in the distance. Probably from Bakugou. If she was right, they were at one of the training grounds – but all she could say for certain was that they weren't in or around the main building. Also that they were fighting. Because why _else_ would Bakugou be letting explosions loose in the middle of the night.

But that scuffle wasn't what put her on edge moments later.

It was that another person left the dorms.

She honed in on the person's footsteps, but the muffling from the dirt and the echo between the buildings made it hard to tell who they came from. It was probably an adult, and probably headed to the same place Midoriya and Bakugou were at. Because they were off fighting in the dead of night outside the dorms for some reason. Which was a stupid move seeing as how there was, y'know, _security_ (probably what tipped off the adult in the first place).

Her money was on the teacher being Aizawa-sensei. He was the homeroom teacher, so it had to be him. And if there was any chance she was gonna run over there and warn them, there wasn't anymore. Sorry guys, but she wasn't gonna risk getting caught in-person too.

Should she call one of their phones? Did they even have them? Would they answer even if they did? They seemed a bit preoccupied at the moment. And that's not even getting into the fact that whatever they were doing was private-enough to warrant going halfway across campus. And they probably didn't want _anyone_ to know.

Especially since the likelihood that it was just Bakugou being mad that Midoriya got a license was next to nothing. He hadn't been that petty for a long time. And the more she thought about it, there more obvious it was that something had changed with him since the Kamino incident. He yelled less. He kept his anger under control. He didn't even relish his wins too much anymore. He just trained and trained and trained as if he were desperate to get stronger.

It wasn't hard to imagine why.

Midoriya was different too, but in a more subtle way that was hard to explain. He was always dedicated to getting stronger, but now there was a more frantic edge to him when he trained. And a small creeping air of anxiety hung around him. There was no more Symbol of Peace. Midoriya was too young to immediately take his place. But he was trying to get their as fast as he could, and it wasn't hard to see when you knew what to look for.

And fighting one of the strongest kids in class would be one of the best ways to do that, right?

But wasn't Bakugou was the one to call Midoriya out?

That's why Midoriya asked where they were going.

But wouldn't that mean...?

No.

She squeezed the rail.

She clenched her teeth.

This wasn't her business.

It wasn't her problem.

It would be for the best if she just went back inside and pretended she never heard anything.

And she was about to do just that when the adult's silhouette came into view.

Light from the streetlamp quickly revealed who it was.

…

All Might?

She lowered her head just below the top of the railing, and peered through the small space between it and the wall underneath.

Her brows furrowed.

This had to mean something.

All Might shouldn't be the one to go out and discipline them. It was the homeroom teacher's job. That's what the rules said. Iida read them out to everyone their first night together.

Aizawa-sensei was supposed to be the one going out there.

But he wasn't.

It was All Might.

Midoriya's mentor.

They were mentor and successor.

Now there was Bakugou.

But why Bakugou? Bakugou didn't have anything to do with this.

Sure, they were childhood friends. But he was _adamant_ about Midoriya being quirkless.

So that meant he didn't know anything, right?

 _Then why was All Might going out there?_

She wanted to go down and talk to him. She wanted ask what the hell was going on. This wasn't normal. Fights in the middle of the night weren't normal. Going to the other side of campus for no reason wasn't normal. Getting retrieved by someone who wasn't your homeroom teacher wasn't normal.

None of this normal.

Yet here they were.

And she wanted to know why.

But the conversation she and All Might had before flashed through her memory.

She promised she wouldn't listen around anymore, and she'd already broken her word more times than she could count since then. She kept scouting. She kept listening in on conversations. She just hadn't gotten caught.

So what would happen if she talked to him now-

All Might stopped.

Jirou's breath hitched.

He looked back in her direction.

She ducked.

The balcony was a part of her room, so she wasn't out 'past curfew'. But that didn't mean it was good to just stay up all night. Especially when they had that exam. Especially when the next semester was going to start in a matter of _hours_.

If she was lucky, that would be the only scolding she'd get.

Because All Might wasn't stupid.

He'd be able to put two and two together.

And they both knew she wasn't a part of this.

And they both knew it should stay that way.

She just hoped to _god_ he didn't see her.

.

 _._

 **.**

She heard footsteps. All Might had begun walking again.

Jirou let out a huge sigh of relief, and lifted her head back over the rail just in time to see him disappear into the trees like the other two did. He went down the same path towards the main building. It probably wouldn't take him too long to get there.

She used one arm as a pillow and let the other dangle out in front of her.

She could still hear the small echo of explosions.

Minutes passed. They continued on.

And then they stopped.

Well it was gonna have to at some point.

Either they finished their fight, or All Might stopped them. But regardless, it was over.

So they were going to come back.

And they'd probably see her before she saw them.

So she should make herself scarce while she still had the chance.

So she got up.

The small rush of adrenaline wore off.

She yawned.

She should go back to bed already.

So she went back inside.

And she slid the door shut behind her.

* * *

Jirou had just about fallen asleep again when the front door opened.

She unplugged one of her jacks from the phone and listened in. Only two people entered: Midoriya and Bakugou. Their steps were a lot heavier than when they left, but it was unmistakably them. All Might must've gone back to the teacher's dorm.

They made a beeline for the elevator, not stopping to do anything else on the way. Whatever they needed to leave the dorms to do, it looked like it got finished. They didn't say anything as they got onto the elevator.

Midoriya got off with a _"Goodnight, Kacchan"_. Bakugou didn't say anything in return, but got off himself two floors later.

They both entered their respective rooms. They both got in their respective beds.

The dorm building returned to its most quiet state: Nothing but the sound of AC and everyone's snoring.

No one had entered or left besides Midoriya and Bakugou.

So now everyone was inside and accounted for. All the others were sound asleep. No one else was going to enter. No one else was going to leave.

It was a small weight off her chest she didn't even know she had, though she wasn't sure why it would be there in the first place. U.A. was probably the safest place in the country they could be right now. Even if someone decided to run laps around the outer ring of campus or sit just inside the gate for hours on end, there was no chance any villain would attack them.

The only kind of trouble they could get in was the kind they caused themselves.

And Jirou was okay with that.

–

It was the start of the next semester. Classes were gonna start up again like normal.

Midoriya and Bakugou were under house arrest. The story was that they fought for some reason, and they were caught by one of the patrol bots on campus. So now they had to spend the next couple days inside cleaning the common areas.

Fair enough. It could've been worse.

They still had minor scuffs and bruises too, though they weren't allowed to go to see Recovery Girl unless there was an emergency. Sucked to be them, though the others still wondered why they would feel the need to fight right after they had a big exam. Because of that, they'd have to miss the first few days of classes. Way to go, guys. A+ planning right there.

But it did seem to be for the best. Both Midoriya and Bakugou seemed to have a weight off their chests now. And it looks like that fight did the trick. Could it have been resolved without violence? Maybe. But there was nothing they could do about it now.

Jirou yawned. How the heck were those two were still so energetic? She didn't even fight and she was still bushed.

Everyone else (her included) went to the opening ceremony at Ground Beta. They ran in to Class B and some of the gen ed kids on the way, but nothing out of the ordinary happened; though Sero pointed out that Shinsou guy Midoriya fought in the tournament seemed different. Jirou wasn't surprised seeing as how the guy was getting one-on-one training from _Aizawa-sensei_ of all people (she vaguely wondered how many other people knew about that).

The assembly went on like normal too. All the students stood still and silent as the principal spoke (while trying not to fall asleep, as far as Jirou was concerned).

Well- except Kaminari, who puffed the hair on the end of Ojiro's tail for some reason. The sound made her grimace – it was annoying, not to mention it was clearly making Ojiro uncomfortable. _Plus_ they were supposed to be listening to the principal's speech (not that she could distract herself even if she wanted to).

Jirou gave him a look to cut it out. Now _really_ wasn't the time.

Kaminari glared back.

The fluffing intensified.

God dammit.

But the speech soon ended. There was a mention of internships, which she was curious about (though it seemed to just be something they'd be doing next year). Then Hound Dog-sensei made a whole ton of growling noises as a speech of his own. Class B's homeroom teacher translated it. It was about an 'incident between two students' the night before.

Man, they were really making an example of Midoriya and Bakugou, weren't they. Didn't look like the other classes had any idea it was them, though. That was good.

And with the assembly over, they were released to head single-file to their classrooms. It was a few minutes before Class A got the chance to go. And when it was finally their turn, they passed by All Might and No. 13.

Most everyone gave their teachers a small glance in passing. Jirou let hers linger a little too long.

It was hard to believe that form really was permanent. With all his muscles gone, he looked almost like a skeleton. Most people seemed to think that his condition was a result of the Kamino fight, and apparently a few of her classmates had even asked if he was going to come out of retirement 'when he got better'. Jirou was surprised that he'd been able to keep the fact that he'd been that way for the whole school year (if not longer) hush hush.

All Might coughed. A small trail of blood escaped the corner of his mouth. He quickly wiped it away. He'd been careful to never look sick it in front of them before the incident. Now he still avoided it, but there would be covered coughs once in awhile when he thought no one was looking.

She turned her head to pay attention to whatever was in front of her. She shouldn't stare.

Kaminari looked over his shoulder and glared back at her, but didn't say anything.

It wasn't surprising: They hadn't spoken much since they all moved in the dorms together, and even then it was only when they were in a group. But while they didn't talk anymore, they had enough sense to not complain when they had assigned chores or work together in class exercises. Jirou was afraid that even a peep of argument could devolve into one of them spilling something they shouldn't. For all she knew, he felt the same way.

And they were pretty good at it as far as she was concerned: The airs of amiability they put up made it so as far as anyone knew, they were still chummy and that conversation back in the hospital hadn't happened at all.

But Kaminari was still mad, and no amount of forced cheeriness was going to hide it from her.

And it sucked. Jirou _did_ still consider him her friend, and it didn't seem like he _hated_ her. But he was still stuck on her knowing that something was up with All Might ahead of time; and he seemed to get that bugging her for info on the subject wasn't going to get anywhere. But the silent treatment wasn't going to work either.

She wondered how long he was gonna keep it up before finally letting it go.

Seriously, even if she wanted to, what was she even supposed to _say_? 'Hey Kaminari guess what All Might's gonna die and there's nothing we can do about it oh and also he gave his quirk to Midoriya don't ask how it's possible just roll with it'? No. She didn't have enough hours in a day to explain just how stupid of an idea that was. Plus it wouldn't even accomplish anything beyond stressing him out since, again, _there wasn't anything anyone could do about it_.

Not to mention she hadn't even told _Midoriya_ what she knew – y'know, the guy who was _at the center of all this_. _He_ got the quirk, _he_ was the successor, and _**he**_ was gonna have to deal with whatever 'being a successor' entailed after they all graduated (if not _sooner_ ). If she was going to spill to anyone, it would be him.

And she wasn't going to. It wasn't her place to do so.

Besides, they all lived on campus now, which was probably the safest place they could be. No villains, no kidnappings, no nothing. Midoriya didn't have to know, Kaminari didn't have to know, and the latter would have to deal with it.

Because things were going to be normal from now on, right?

* * *

The next morning was like any of the others.

Present Mic was teaching English. Jirou was making an effort to actually take notes. They were learning new grammar points to start off the new semester, and just because she had a knack for language didn't mean she could zone out. The tests themselves with all their weird terms were terrible. And she needed to remember what they meant and how they could change the meaning of a sentence with word order, as much as she hated learning by rote.

Well, she _was_ trying; but her mind kept darting off to random areas of the school.

Class was going on, regardless of the department. And the morning lessons were pretty much the same for each department, if not in the same order. There wasn't really much of a point in listening on other classes' unless she _really_ felt like it (though she had to say, the support department's math teacher made things _really_ easy to understand; her lit notes wound up containing a few completely unrelated sample problems because of it). Sometimes kids would chat in the bathrooms or the halls, but generally she had to wait until the breaks between classes to actually hear anything new.

Instead she subconsciously honed in on the teachers and staff passing through the halls, but even they were mixed bags. After the school staff had learned 'a student' was capable of listening in on their conversations, they were careful with what they said outside the soundproofed areas at first. Nothing about grades, lessons, or other students.

Though after a few weeks, it was like they never heard it in the first place for most of them. Sure, there were certain subjects that teachers only talked about in the break room anyway (since even without Jirou listening, there was a chance that a passing student in the hall could overhear them), but small talk about their families, pets, and the like were all fair game.

Though sometimes they _didn't_ bother waiting until they were somewhere 'safe'. Jirou was okay with that-

All Might's phone rang.

He was headed to the nurse's office from the staff room, which seemed to be a daily occurrence at this point. It was the same route he always used, and the ringtone gave him away if nothing else. Though it was weird he got a call. Anyone who needed him in school knew where he'd be, and it wasn't like he got fan-calls or the like ever. So who could it be?

He fished the phone out of his pocket and swiped the screen.

" _Ah- Good morning, Tsukauchi."_ Huh. Tsukauchi was the detective that took everyone's statements after the USJ incident, right? Why would _he_ be calling? _"Any news?"_

And it looked like All Might kept in touch with him, given that question.

All Might didn't make any attempt to get in the nurse's office before continuing. Jirou wondered if he forgot about her ability, or if maybe he just trusted her not to listen around the main building anymore.

A small pang of guilt in her twisted at that, but she didn't make any effort to focus on something else.

" _We believe we've found a lead on the location of one of All-for-One's facilities. I have people looking into it as we speak."_

All-for-One... That was the guy All Might fought during the Kamino tragedy.

He was in prison. It was all over the news and everything.

So why were they still investigating him? Obviously he wasn't an average villain (All Might's retirement said it all), but 'multiple facilities'? What was he, Lex Luthor? The only other people she could think of that worked to that scale were the yakuza, and even then it was only rumors.

" _Any word on...?"_ All Might's voice didn't crack, but there was a distinct wariness in it that said he wouldn't be happy with either possibly answer.

" _There's been some reported sightings of his associates, but nothing of Shigaraki himself."_

Shigaraki?

She remembered that name from the USJ incident too. And that time he 'talked' to Midoriya at the mall. Him and All-for-One being connected made sense, now that she thought about it. And it explained those fluid-filled tanks Yaoyorozu mentioned seeing in one of the buildings when her group went to rescue Bakugou. Though it was weird that All Might was keeping tabs on the rest on his gang now that their leader was gone. Didn't organizations like that usually fall apart pretty quick after the kingpin got arrested?

" _What about Gran Torino?"_

Who?

" _He's out following a lead of his own at the moment. I can take a message, if you want."_

Okay so Gran Torino was one of the good guys. Probably a hero by the sound of it. She'd have to look him up later. Maybe during break.

" _No, that's alright. Just give him my regards the next time you see him."_

They talked for a few more minutes after that. All Might asked after Tsukauchi's department – they were all doing well, though the paperwork following the increase in crime was a nightmare. Tsukauchi asked after Midoriya (okay, so that was another person in on the All Might's Successor Conspiracy™; good to know; she should start making a list) and how All Might was doing in his retirement: All Might assured him that both he and Midoriya were doing fine, and even mentioned how proud he was that almost all the first-years managed to get their hero licenses.

It was an overall pleasant conversation. Listening in on it made Jirou feel one part calm relief, one part interest, and five parts shredding guilt for not even _trying_ to keep her promise.

The two adults said their goodbyes. All Might ended the call with a tap. A minute later and he was in the nurse's office.

Jirou looked down at her paper. She'd stopped taking notes awhile ago.

She looked up at the board. Present Mic was already erasing it.

Great.

She grimaced. She'd have to ask someone for their notes later. Probably Yaoyorozu – _she_ never asked why Jirou would occasionally miss whole chunks of the class notes. And she was so good at tutoring that Jirou was sure that she could come straight to U.A. as a teacher if heroing didn't work out for her (as much as Jirou didn't like thinking like that)

But regardless, there was something way more concerning on her mind now: If All Might was retired, still keeping tabs with the police on that investigation, and even getting calls from a police officer him _self_...

What _else_ was there?

* * *

The next day came with the end of Midoriya's house arrest. He'd come back more energetic than ever. Maybe all that time with Bakugou rubbed off on him; he was ready to power back into their lessons and catch up so fast he might as well have never fallen behind in the first place.

And with _that_ came with an introduction of the top 3 seniors in their school. Which was supposed to be an introduction to internships. Except instead of just talking about internships, it just wound up being a class-wide match against Togata-senpai that ended in him handing all their asses to them on a silver platter.

Fun times.

Jirou's stomach still stung; her lobes too: She actually didn't know they could stretch that far, which made it all the harder to untie them after that battle (not that Kaminari was any help; jerk). She'd have to keep that in mind for the future, plus how squishy she still seemed to be compared to everyone else (she wasn't in outright _pain_ , but she would've gone to Recovery Girl after they were let out had anyone else decided to as well).

But it was okay. She'd probably be fine tomorrow. All she had to do was sleep it off.

Which was why she was in bed while the other girls talked about internships on the first floor.

Man. Internships.

She could probably do one if she _really_ wanted to, but she was still on the fence about it. On one hand, she'd get to do more hands-on stuff than what she did during her field training; Destegoro really drilled in the importance of getting stronger into her, but he never let her do anything dangerous (though it was still harder than anything she did in class). On the other, she had two more years to do it. And it wasn't even mandatory. Plus she'd still have to keep up with school work. And she _liked_ having Sundays off.

But lack of free time aside, her hero office still probably wouldn't expect her to get her hands too dirty if she went back to them (being a kid and all), but wouldn't she just get in the way if she couldn't even do _that_? Destegoro said heroes had practice and train constantly, but here she was just sitting on her bed doing nothing. And she pretty much _never_ did any extra training outside of class unless there was some kind of test or event coming up.

And honestly, it was beginning to show.

Because how could she expect to do her job right if she couldn't even take a few punches and getting her ears yanked? Togata-senpai was as strong as some pro heroes and she was still a freshman, so it made sense for them to have that big of a difference in strength. But there was always a chance that the villains she'd run into would be just as strong. And she wasn't sure she'd be able to take down even those thugs from USJ on her own, much less anyone more high-profile.

And what if someone got hurt because of that? Or worse?

...

Ugh.

This wasn't getting her anywhere.

At this rate, she was gonna start thinking in circles and just stress herself out.

What she _needed_ was _sleep_.

If she couldn't even do _that,_ she might as well distract herself until she got tired.

She grabbed her phone and swiped it open. Nothing a little mindless scrolling couldn't help.

But then she heard an unfamiliar voice.

" _Huh? Internship?! Who the heck is this?!"_

It came from a cellphone on the second floor, most likely from Midoriya's room. It sounded like an old guy.

She really should've just ignored it, or at least forced herself to listen to music off her phone instead. But there was something about new voices in a sea of ones she knew that practically forced her eavesdrop out of habit. (Hagakure would probably freak out if she knew all the things Jirou had heard her talk about with her friends those first few nights in the dorms.)

" _I was, well... wondering if you'd take me on, Gran Torino."_

That name again.

" _You never write, you never call. Guess you're too much of a big shot now, huh, kid?!"_ What was this guy, Midoriya's granddad? But he never mentioned being related to any heroes. Plus he was calling him by his hero name. Scratch that it was dumb for her to even consider it.

" _Anyway, sorry. I'm working on a case. Can't help you out."_ That one the cop was talking to All Might about, right? Guess Midoriya didn't know anything about it.

Gran Torino continued.

" _Yeah, I see how it is! You weren't scouted by anyone but me after the sports festival. You may be next in line, but you're still just a baby!"_

Another successor line dropped. So this Gran Torino guy was in on it too. Just how many people _were_ there?

" _It's exactly **because** I'm inexperienced that I'll do whatever it takes to be the top hero."_ Midoriya was the successor, so it was obvious his end goal was to reach All Might's level.

Everyone in class wanted to make it big to some degree, but only Bakugou made a point of saying he was gonna make it to the top. Jirou vaguely wondered how much of Midoriya's goal to get that far was his own, and how much of it was because of the shoes he had to fill.

" _No need to get all dramatic when stating the obvious."_ Gran Torino ended that sentence with a chuckle.

" _If that's all it's about, why not have a chat with your mentor?"_ All Might _would_ be the best option, wouldn't he. _"He's supposedly giving it all as an educator, nowadays._ "

" _But Aizawa-sensei told us to use out connections from the sports festival to..."_

" _Which is all well and good for those who've got 'em."_ Ouch. That had to sting. _"All Might can open all sorts of doors for you."_ She almost expected him to leave Midoriya at that before he continued:

" _Like with his former sidekick..."_

Sidekick...?

He _did_ have one a while ago, didn't he – back when Jirou was still in elementary school. He was called Sir... _something_. He didn't spend too much time in the limelight; and she didn't remember him getting any merch either, which was pretty weird considering whose sidekick he was.

But they split up years ago, didn't they? A few kids talked about it the day the news broke. And it was covered in all the tabloids. But after that, he completely dropped off the radar. And made no attempt to get back on.

And it was pretty weird that this old guy was the one to suggest the idea, rather that All Might himself. If Sir Whatshisface was really able to give him an internship why didn't he just do it before when they had that field training?

Did they even keep in touch? All Might wasn't the type to bad-mouth people, but he hadn't mentioned Sir _once_ throughout the entire school year.

Actually- for being the greatest hero in Japan, he really didn't share too many stories in general. Once in awhile he'd give them a small anecdote about a time where he had an experience similar to the exercise they were learning about, but that was it. Never any of the big stuff, though.

So why would Midoriya only get his sidekick as an option now?

And the way he said it so casually – who _was_ this guy? All Might mentioned him before. Midoriya had _field training_ with him.

Gran Torino... That was his name, right? She opened up a new tab in her browser and typed it in. The results were all about some old movie with the same name. Nothing about the hero himself. No website or anything. Adding 'hero' to the query didn't help; that just got her info on the movie plot. Adding '-movie' didn't either; that gave her a bunch of restaurants, pictures of cars, and archived band sites from over a hundred years ago.

She grimaced.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

The next day was by all accounts normal: Normal classes. Normal lessons. Normal break-time conversations too (though she didn't have anyone to share the school gossip with anymore). Everything fell back into routine in the new semester without any real trouble.

People trickled down to the cafeteria when the clock struck 12:30. Class A was no exception. Aoyama would usually waltz out first (being the closest to the door), and everyone else would follow at their leisure. Some would head out on their own after putting their stuff away. Others would wait for a friend or two and leave as a group. There wasn't really any rush to get down there ASAP, so it could be a couple minutes before everyone cleared out.

Jirou herself was usually one of the last ones to go. There wasn't any real reason – she just took a few extra seconds to put her stuff away and wasn't in any particular rush to stuff her face. Although now she usually left with Yaoyorozu, the latter often getting questions from a classmate or two about the lessons they had that morning. Today was no different; everyone followed their normal routine.

Though there was one exception.

Midoriya usually left with Iida, Todoroki, and maybe Uraraka; but he told them not to wait up for him this time.

He'd been antsy all morning. And then he made a beeline for the staff room. It wasn't hard to put two and two together and figure it was because of that phone conversation yesterday. His pace said it all, and so did the way he shut the door behind him.

Jirou let her focus linger around that area. It was lunch time. The teachers needed to eat too. She knew some just ate their lunch in the staff room, but others would go down to the cafeteria with the students.

And Ectoplasm did just that a minute later: He opened the door just long-enough to let her hear All Might ask where Midoriya had hear Sir Nighteye's name, though it was really muffled by the rest of the sound insulation.

And then he shut it, leaving Jirou pretty much right where she started.

Her gaze was only half focused as she and Yaoyorozu finally entered the cafeteria. Those extra couple minutes they spent in the classroom let the lines get long. A few kids like Tsuyu made their own lunch, but most of them would wait and grab one of the options the school offered; and Jirou was no exception.

So she let her body operate on autopilot and followed Yaoyorozu to the ramen line. Another couple minutes passed. No one else left the staff room. And all the noise around her now was threatening to break her concentration. Or at least give her one hell of a headache.

Lunch was probably her least-favorite part of the day, to be honest. The whole school crammed onto the first floor for it, which meant hundreds of conversations in the same room reverberating off the walls all at once. And yet she could barely make any out individually. The irony was not lost on her.

And with the passing time, more kids had their food and started conversations as they sat at the lunch tables. She furrowed her brows as the room got louder. It was hard-enough to keep an ear on an actual person with all this noise – a silent space was near _impossible_. Heck, the only reason she still had a fix on that one location was that she'd kept most of her mental energy on it; though at this point she wasn't even sure if she'd be able to make anything out if the door did open again.

Well, there was only one way to find out-

"Jirou-san? Are you feeling alright?"

God dammit.

She snapped back to reality. Yaoyorozu's voice had a edge of concern to it. Jirou must've had her resting bitch face on without realizing it again.

"Oh yeah I'm fine." She slapped on a sheepish smile over it, like she _wasn't_ totally just stalking one of her classmates around the building. "Just thinking about some stuff. No biggie."

Wait. No. She didn't mean to say it like that.

"Would you like to talk about it?"

"Nah it's no big deal." Jirou scratched the back of her head. "Just trying to make sense outta that English class earlier. We're learning all those new grammar bits, y'know?"

And she just tried to use her best subject as an excuse. _Real_ smooth.

Man, today was just great, wasn't it. She needed to get some food in her stomach and fast.

"We _are_ learning quite a lot, aren't we." Yaoyorozu nodded and crossed her arms. Jirou's screw-up seemed to fly right over her head. Good. "Are there some points you're having trouble understanding?"

"I'm good. I'm good." Jirou shrugged. "I think I'll get it soon-enough. I just gotta memorize it all first."

She really didn't like lying, but there weren't really any other options right now.

"That's good." Yaoyorozu smiled. She didn't seem to notice. "Though if you change your mind, I'd be happy to study with you again."

"Duly noted. And I might just take you up on that offer later."

The line moved quick as usual. They got their food and moved to a pair of empty seats near the window. The places where people sat for lunch never completely set, but after a semester everyone had a general area they preferred. Yaoyorozu was one of the kids who tended to float to different tables, and Jirou followed her in turn.

Satou was at the table of the day, as well as a trio of kids Jirou was pretty sure were in the business department. There was some conversation about some power point Class 1-J had to do, about the logistics of running a hero office. Satou nodded that the seats were free – he'd probably have said it if he didn't have a mouthful of rice.

So they took them. Yaoyorozu jumped in on the bizkid conversation as soon as she had an idea of what was going on. They seemed happy to explain the the little things she didn't know about. Satou was lost, though Yaoyorozu's questions seemed to help a little. Jirou focused on her food – or that's at least what she hoped it looked like.

Try as she might, she couldn't latch back onto that thread she had earlier; there was so much noise in the cafeteria that she couldn't even focus on the hallways just outside it. She might've been able to if she hadn't been interrupted, but clawing her way back would probably be impossible without looking like she was about to murder someone.

Maybe she could if she'd sat right next to the exit, but it was too late for that.

So she slurped her ramen, and waited for the hour to end.

* * *

The rest of the day passed without anything else happening.

Most everyone went straight back to the dorms after the last class let out (Jirou was no exception), and the last few made it back in time for dinner. Then they dispersed to get their baths out of the way.

And after that, Jirou found herself in Uraraka's room with the rest of the girls. Everyone had math homework to do, and Jirou asked if Yaoyorozu was still up for tutoring while they were all bathing, which led to Ashido asking (begging) to let her come too, which turned into Hagakure asking as well, which turned into the other two getting roped in to make it a girls' night.

And since Uraraka's room was the least-cluttered out of all of theirs, the majority decided it would be the best one to use. Thankfully she didn't seem to mind not having a say in the matter.

The plan was to get their stuff done before chatting and whatnot. As fun as it would be to just sit around and put it off, that would just mean staying up later. Which meant less sleep altogether. And even if they weren't doing anything too tiring tomorrow, they were still winded from today.

So aside from the occasional question tossed around, the only sounds coming from them were breathing, pencil scratching, and the turning of textbook pages.

And Jirou wasn't any different. Normally she'd listen to music to drown out the surrounding noise, but something studying in a group let her not need to. The noises immediately around her were what she unconsciously paid attention to. Whatever the boys were doing was just background noise. She could tell there were a few conversations, but nothing was being said that caught her attention; so it all just got filtered out.

But it didn't do anything to affect her thoughts, which kept distracting her. Again.

Midoriya had run to the staff room (not weird). He was even more antsy after he got back from lunch (also not weird, given that it was Midoriya). But then he went to the nap room with Togata-senpai after class let out, and All Might had gotten there before them (okay kinda weird). Jirou didn't stick around to listen in on them, though; said room was another dead zone.

(She vaguely wondered at the time if she'd be able to hear anything if she plugged her jacks into the door.)

(It also occurred to her that she was getting kind of creepy about it.)

(Good thing no one in the school had a mind-reading quirk.)

 _But_ when Midoriya back to the dorms, he was in a noticeably better mood. It didn't take much to put two and two together and figure out he got the job: An internship with All Might's former sidekick, Sir Nighteye. Given yesterday's talk, she'd be surprised if it was anyone _but_ him.

Which made sense. He was the successor, so he was going to be raised and treated like one. Learning from the people closest to his mentor was probably the best thing he could do. Especially since they were one ones that knew the most about his quirk. And that would let him grow as fast as he could.

Because there was a void in the world of heroes now.

That was because All Might had retired.

Which meant there was no "symbol of peace" to deter crime anymore.

The guy who was the kingpin of that whole Villain Alliance nonsense was in prison.

But Shigaraki was still free.

And the Villain Alliance still existed.

And the police were still investigating them.

To the point that All Might kept in contact with one of the officers and got updates on it.

And the hero Midoriya had done his field training with was investigating it too.

So now Midoriya was going to be interning under the only sidekick All Might ever had.

But the Villain Alliance was still a threat.

U.A. could very well get attacked again.

And that's why they kept all the students on campus as much as possible – it was the safest thing they could do.

Though they weren't in any immediate danger, to the point that no one was gonna escort Bakugou and Todoroki to their supplemental lessons. And while none of the other kids were supposed to leave during the weekdays willy nilly, the weekends were fair game so long as they told someone where they were going (and told a teacher if they weren't going to be in the surrounding area at all).

Jirou twirled a pencil between her fingers. There were a ton of gaps in her knowledge, but it couldn't be helped. She'd already decided not to go to Midoriya about it. He didn't even know about All Might's health failing. It'd stand to reason that he wouldn't know anymore than she did. And asking him about it might end in _her_ telling _him_ things he wasn't supposed to know yet.

And that was the worst part, really. Jirou was just a regular student with no real stake in whatever crazy conspiracy was going on. She _shouldn't_ know any of this. Not even the _teachers_ did. The only people on campus with more info than her were Recovery Girl and the principal. And it's not like she could just waltz into their respective offices and start asking questions about things even Mr. Successor him _self_ wasn't aware of.

She glanced at the girls around her. Talking to her classmates would just drag them into something way over all their heads that the couldn't even do anything about. And even assuming they would all keep their lips sealed, how the hell were they supposed to _prepare_ for something like this? Form some kind of League of Heroes™ and hope for the best? When it wasn't even a guarantee Shigaraki and his gang would rise to prominence again?

And what about All Might? He lied to her before, and doing it again was the _best_ outcome she could expect. But she was sure if he told anyone, she'd wind up on some kind of list and be considered extra baggage for sticking her nose where it didn't belong. Because while she wasn't a useless and weak (at least, she hoped so), all it would take was one slip-up to ruin _everything_.

Same thing would probably happen if she went to the police. Plus she'd be interrogated and they might even think _she_ was a villain. Or her parents too. And then if the tabloids got in on it they could say goodbye to their musical careers. God why would she even _think_ of doing that.

Sir Nighteye too. What was she supposed to do, stalk Midoriya there and demand to get interned too? Even if somehow the stars aligned and that worked, what was she supposed to do about other people in that hero office asking questions? And how the heck was she supposed to keep up with the workload _and_ school? There was no way she'd be able to do that.

And more importantly, there was no way she'd be able to ask any of _them_ about that.

But what if about...

"Ah- Are you having difficulty with a problem, Jirou-san?"

Yaoyorozu snapped her out of that line of thought. Jirou looked down. She'd stopped moving her pencil mid-equation.

"Oh no sorry." Jirou slapped on a sheepish smile. "I just kinda spaced out. My bad."

She _really_ needed to stop doing that.

And she needed to get her work done.

So she could get back to her room.

Because there was there was something else she had to check.

She got back to doing her homework, and ignored the growing pit in her stomach.

* * *

Jirou missed having Saturdays off.

But that's what you got when going to U.A., especially when you were in the hero department. They had 6 classes when the others only had to go to 4. Lucky.

Thankfully the teachers were nice enough not to assign a ton of homework on that day. After all, Sunday was their day to rest up; no one wanted to have to deal with burnout, especially when they were just freshmen. And that meant they were home free after they got out on Saturday.

So _clearly_ lazing around in bed was the best way to use that free time.

And that's _just_ what Jirou was doing.

The girls had already finished taking their baths. Most of the guys were done or just about done with theirs. No one made too much noise; everyone got the bath time horsing around out of their systems weeks ago. A few of them made calls their parents (Jirou had just finished one with hers).

No one had any plans to do anything tonight, even if it _was_ the weekend. Sero was gonna pop a movie in the common area TV at 21:00, and anyone could join in if they wanted to – but that was about it. His normal crew would definitely be there. Oftentimes more than a few of their other classmates were there too – Jirou included. She on the fence about doing it this time, though. She had to get up early tomorrow.

The elevator dinged as Midoriya and Mineta got off together. They usually got off together. Probably because they lived on the same floor.

But before either of them could enter their dorms, Mineta stopped in front of his door and asked Midoriya a question:

" _Oh yeah- You goin' to Yaomomo's study party tomorrow?"_

There'd already been a class-wide text sent out about it, but there wasn't any pressure to RSVP. A few of the guys had caught wind of the girls' study session last night and decided they wanted in on that, so they asked (begged) Yaoyorozu to let them study with her. A few more heard about it, and at that point she figured she might as well invite everyone.

" _Ah- sorry. I'm going off-campus tomorrow."_

" _Why?"_ Mineta leaned against his door. _"You got some kinda hot date I don't know about?"_

" _No! Nothing like that!"_ Jirou could practically _see_ Midoriya flailing arms. _"I'm gonna be doing an internship."_

Yep.

" _Say what?! You're actually **doing** that?"_

" _Well... I gotta to get all the experience I can, y'know?"_

" _Not with the guy you went with before, I hope."_ Mineta huffed with exasperation. _"I worry about you, you know."_

" _I don't think I'll have to worry about anything like running into Stain again, if that's what you mean."_ Midoriya chuckled, though he clearly didn't wanna go through that again. _"But yeah I'm interning with someone else."_

" _Good."_ A few joints crackled as Mineta stretched his arms. _"Not gonna lie, though. I'm kinda jealous."_

" _Couldn't you ask Mt. Lady to take you back?"_

" _Ugh. Don't remind me."_ Even a couple months later, he'd never said what had _actually_ happened to him during his field training. Though the general consensus was that he probably deserved it.

" _Well, there's always next year, right?"_

" _I guess. That's what everyone else's thinking."_

A few more exchanges and their conversation was over. They went in their respective rooms. The elevator went back down to pick up Satou and Sero.

Jirou stuck her jacks in her phone.

Pretty much everyone in class had considered getting an internship. They'd already gotten their licenses, so it was the logical next step.

But as far as she could tell, most of them weren't going to.

And she was no exception. It was pretty much unheard of for first years to do internships – usually it was just their field training and that's it. Doing an internship meant working on top of a full course load, with no breaks in between. Seniors would have a tough time balancing them; freshmen even moreso.

Plus Aizawa said to use the contacts they all made at the sports festival, but she only had the hero she chose from that roster. Not making it to the final tournament would do that. Her parents could probably hook her up with someone good if she asked (assuming Destegoro wouldn't take her back in), but taking the easy way out wouldn't help her at all in the long run. If anything, she'd just get babied and it'd turn into a glorified field training exercise. So why bother.

Sigh.

She really shouldn't think like that. It wasn't going to get her anywhere.

She wasn't gonna do an internship and that was that. She wasn't ready for it and didn't really care too much. So why bother?

There was always next year. She could do it next year.

Not like anything was gonna happen before that.

...

And it was too late to call Destegoro, anyway.

...

And she had plans tomorrow.

…

Screw it.

She swung he legs off her bed.

It was gonna be a bit before the movie started, but she could hang out with everyone else in the meantime.

* * *

It was finally Sunday.

It was generally a time to laze and recharge, but not everyone was staying on campus. Bakugou and Todoroki left together early to go to those supplementary lessons they had. Midoriya dashed out a little while later to go to his internship. None of them were gonna have any days off for a while. Brutal.

Beyond those obvious three, there were a few others she wasn't sure about. Uraraka and Kirishima usually didn't get up that early.

And then there was Jirou herself.

As far as she was concerned, days off were days to sleep in. No reason not to when there was nothing she had to do, and living in the dorms meant there wasn't unless they'd planned it beforehand (which no one had, thank god). Sure, there was usually homework; but that could wait. If she was tired and she could help it, she'd spend an extra hour or three all comfy and snug under the covers. And she wouldn't have to think about anything else, which was pretty great.

But, sadly, today was not one of those days. She had stuff to do and she couldn't do it while laying like a lump. The blaring of the cell phone's alarm in her ear was the sign to roll out of bed and get up, as much as she wanted to hit snooze.

So she did a few stretches and threw on something casual yet presentable: Just some black shorts and a purple top. Something she could hit the town with, but versatile enough that she could go talk to someone or even just lounge around the house in – not that it was a big deal what she wore today; she doubted anyone would actually care, and her U.A. wardrobe was pretty casual. It probably wouldn't get her any comments or misread intentions.

Then she grabbed her phone off the bed and swiped it open to her email – she'd messaged Aizawa-sensei before she went to bed last night to say she was going home for the day. A simple 'okay' sat in her inbox with no other questions, so she was in the clear there. If things went south, and least no one could place any blame on him for what he knew.

Then she moved onto her texts. There was one more person she had to tell.

 _Yo prez fyi I'm gonna be at my parents' place til tomorrow_

He didn't hover over everyone's shoulder, but Iida was usually the first to notice if someone was missing. She noticed he'd always take a quiet headcount during dinner, and ask where any missing persons were if it wasn't something they all knew about beforehand (like that time Tokoyami got stuck on the school roof). No reason to make him worry if she could help it.

Her phone buzzed a few seconds later.

 _Thank you, Jirou-kun. Have a safe trip._

And after him, there wasn't anyone else she needed to tell. She already called her parents last night, so no need to text them or anything before she got home. As far as they knew, she was going to be 'going out with friends' and coming home that evening. Hopefully Mom didn't notice anything off about her voice. She was good at catching things like that, but didn't say anything. Jirou didn't know whether to feel relieved or guilty at that. Because she really didn't like lying to them.

She grabbed her bag before she could trail down that line of thought any further and left the room. The first floor was a quick elevator ride away, and she got off just as Kirishima and Tokoyami were about to get on the one for the boys' side.

"Hey Jirou!" Kirishima gave a small wave. Tokoyami gave a small nod.

"Hey guys." She gave him and Tokoyami a small wave in return. Those two got on their elevator while she headed into the common area.

The first floor was almost empty. Most everyone was still in their rooms: Some asleep, some awake – Tsuyu and Uraraka were the only ones together in one, though. She vaguely wondered what they were up to, but she knew she shouldn't pry.

But in the common area itself, there were only two others. Mineta sat at one of the tables with a bowl of cereal. Kaminari sat across from him with a juice box, scrolling through his phone with his free hand.

Mineta looked up at her.

"Hey Jirou, _you're_ coming to Yaomomo's study party, right?"

"Oh uh- not this time, sorry." The sudden question stopped her in her tracks, but she was careful not to let it change her expression. "I got plans." She caught herself before she added any unnecessary info. No need to try and sound suspicious first thing in the morning.

"What, _you're_ going for an internship _too_?" Haha. No.

"Nah, just going back to my parents house." She chose not to point out annoyance in his tone. Just how many people did he think were going for them? "I was helping them out with a project before – might as well finish up my part while I still have the time."

Well, sorta. She _did_ help her parents with their music occasionally. And they'd probably have a jam session at some point when she was with them. It just wasn't the only other thing she would be doing. Which no one else had to know. Because there were way too many ways that could go wrong.

Also, way to add an unnecessary explanation right after concluding that was a bad idea. She mentally facepalmed. Way to go, her.

"'Kay. See you tomorrow." Mineta just shrugged and lazily waved his spoon at her. They weren't really friends, and didn't talk too much. He wasn't going to press the issue.

So she was in the clear there. Good.

"See ya." She gave a small wave back and glanced at Kaminari.

He gave her a flat look in return.

But he didn't say anything, thankfully. They hadn't truly spoken one-on-one since he visited her in the hospital, and it looked like he wasn't gonna try and break that streak now. Instead he just sat with his arms crossed. Which she wasn't going to ask about. Because she had plans and the train wasn't gonna wait for her.

Though even if she wasn't busy, she wasn't going to be the one to try and start a conversation if he was going to keep being so moody whenever she was around.

So instead she walked to the exit without saying anything more, and pretended that she didn't feel his eyes follow her out the front door.

And she pretended she didn't hear the morse tapped out behind her:

 _L-I-A-R._

* * *

It didn't take too long to get to the train station.

She made the trek every day back when she commuted; and she already missed it, to be honest. The weather was nice and the sky clear. The air was warm, but not muggy like it was a month ago. Even if she was alone, she could just doze off and let her body go on autopilot without a care in the world. Maybe grab some coffee and a bagel if she felt like it. She hadn't eaten anything before she left the dorms. There was a Starbucks a few blocks down; she could stop by and grab something on the way.

By all accounts it could just be another lazy weekend. The town itself had a lot to do in it – she could just wander around and go home after if she really wanted to. The mall was freakin' _huge_ , and she could window shop in it alone for hours – especially since she hadn't done that since she went with everyone else when they were stocking up on stuff pre-training camp.

Or she could go back to the dorm, grab her acoustic guitar, and busk in a nearby park. Or she could wander and try and find some interesting new place she hadn't been before. Or she could camp villain hotspots and watch heroes do their thing. A whole day could be filled with plenty of new things leftover. All she had to do was go anywhere _but_ the station.

But she didn't.

She walked up the steps and headed inside. Most people used their phones to get on the train now. It was easy enough to hold it over the sensor at the ticket gate going in, and then doing it again on the way out: It would automatically charge the ticket to her account, which was obviously a lot quicker than going through this whole process. She could just leave this machine and call it a day.

The downside was that if she used her phone to get in, or even used her card to buy the ticket, the charge on her account would always both the starting point and destination. Her parents were chill and didn't touch her finances beyond giving her an allowance, but she had to play it safe. It was bad-enough that she lied to them about where she was going – she didn't want to know what would happen if they found out what she was doing.

She looked at the map above the ticket machine. There were multiple different lines running through the station, including both the one used to get home and the one to Yamanashi. They weren't in completely opposite directions. She'd take the Chuo line to get to her destination. And the Fuefuki line would let her go straight home after she was done. Easy as pie.

She tapped the "purchase ticket" button on the right side of the screen, then tapped the other buttons as needed: More than 1490¥. 1850¥. Die a little inside (not a button). She hadn't done this in awhile; usually she just showed her phone and passing through in a few seconds. The last time was because she left her phone at home and it was either use this machine or be late for class; and she knew which option would get her in trouble.

This ticket cost around the same as it would've cost to go straight home without a JR account – a little less, actually. All she had to do now was put in the cash to pay for it.

She fished her wallet out of her bag, but paused as she took out the change. Nothing was forcing her to do this. She could just go back and start over. Or she could even cancel the transaction entirely and use her phone to get through and go home and everyone would be none the wiser. Maybe she could call some friends from middle school and hang out. That would make a lot more sense. She would at least know what she was doing then. And she could go about her day like she _wasn't_ just enacting the most least-thought-out plan ever.

But she didn't.

She stuck in the cash to pay. A small paper ticket popped out. Her change dropped into the well below it. She grabbed both.

The card had the date, origin station, and ticket price on it. All correct. The change was the right amount and went right back in her wallet. And as far as she knew, she hadn't forgotten anything. And it wasn't like she could go back now that she'd paid.

So she headed straight to the turnstile.

The ticket went in the slot. The little arrow in front of it lit up. She passed through and grabbed the ticket on the other side. Now it was just a matter of getting to the right platform. Just follow the arrows. The station was pretty big, but it shouldn't be too hard to find.

Though to be fair, she didn't have to take that train. The line that would take her home went through this station too. She could go on that one instead and use one of the fare adjustment machines after and be just fine.

Her parents wouldn't mind her coming home early. If anything, they'd probably be happy to spend more time with their little girl (as much as she hated it when they called her that). They could have jam session or go see a movie or even just talk about school and what it's like living on her own so far away from them and it would be fine. There wouldn't be anything wrong with that. Heck, it might even be better since it would mean she _hadn't_ blatantly lied to everyone.

But she didn't.

She went down the stairs. A sign hung above the designated platform, the time of arrival displayed on the LED screen. She made it with plenty of time to spare. And there was next to no chance that the train was going to be late (unless a there was a hero fight in the way or someone threw themselves in front of it). She just had to wait.

And as she waited, she texted a girl from middle school she knew that had an apartment in Yamanashi. Maybe they could hang out after Jirou finished her business or something. Socializing was always fun, and the girl was fairly down-to-earth like her – she wasn't the type to make a big deal out of being friends with someone going to U.A.. They could just chill and window shop around the Aeon Mall and grab lunch or something.

After that she just scrolled through her phone. She browsed a random news article. Some guy with a water quirk was apparently using it to poach an endangered species of fish in Fukuoka. The Luminescent Hero Nightlight caught him in the act and apprehended him with little resistance (aside from taking a fish to the face, said fish promptly being released back into the lake). Another was on the reconstruction efforts in Kamino. Another on the spike in crime following All Might's retirement. But nothing on any major incidents or disasters.

She checked the time. The train home would be arriving in a few minutes. She could walk over to its platform wait for it instead. It wouldn't take too long. She could make it if she really wanted to.

There wasn't anything stopping her: The girl hadn't responded yet. She wasn't Iida, so it would make sense for her to take more than a few minutes. Jirou could just say that something came up or that she had some plan she forgot about. It'd be a dick move, but at least there wasn't anything set in stone yet. She could just cancel and bail and go home. Or hell, she could just go back to campus and cut her losses and forget she ever _had_ this stupid idea.

But she didn't.

The train rolled up on time. The doors opened and people began filing off. It would be a few seconds before she could get on, but thankfully neither the train nor the station itself seemed to busy. She slipped her phone into her pocket.

Passengers stopped exiting. The people on the platform with her started entering. She went with them, and sat in one of the empty seats in the middle of the car. There were few-enough people that no one had to stand if they didn't want to. A man pulled out a book and began to read. A few others took out their phones and began browsing.

No one started any conversations, which was normal. Jirou took out her phone again. No response.

Her free hand clenched at her knee.

It wasn't too late to get off.

She could leave and make a mad dash for the other platform.

And maybe she could still make it.

Her parents would be fine with it.

The girl never responded.

Jirou didn't have to do this.

She still had time.

She could still stop it.

She could still leave.

What was she even thinking this was the worst idea she'd ever had.

She had to go.

She had to leave.

She had to

had to

had to

HAD TO

 _ **HAD TO**_.

...

But she didn't.

And the doors closed.

* * *

It was the weekend, but lots of hero offices were still open.

She could only hope that this guy's was too. A vague map to it was the only thing she could find – no hours or even a phone number. And even then it was in a single archived thread on an obscure, hole-in-the-wall hero forum discussing All Might's 'final battle' right after it happened, rather than anything official. And even _then_ it was just a guy talking about some dude he saw that looked just like him going in and out of a certain building. Not even having a website was unheard of these days. Not having a google-able office address or even a phone number even moreso.

But even if the office was closed, there would at least be a sheet listing when he'd be in, right? She could just write down those numbers and find a time that worked for her. Or call. Or just send an email if that was on it. Time wasn't of the essence. He'd still be there later.

Though that was assuming it was even the right place. And that it was even an office. And that he'd even be there at all.

…

God, what was she _doing_?

It was too late to go straight back to her parents' house. She got a response to her invitation. She and the girl were set to meet at the mall, and she wasn't just going to up and cancel when she was already all the way out there. That wasn't the kind of dick move she'd pull on someone without a real good reason.

Well, she _could_ just turn back at go to the mall early.

And find something to do.

Get a latte and some lunch.

Go to a bookstore.

Window-shop.

Try on clothes.

 _Anything_.

And waste more time on _those_ instead of doing anything productive.

She'd already doomed her one day off that week to being over an hour away from her family, classmates, and anyone else she was really close with. Why _not_ just dick around and do whatever?

It wasn't like anyone would know her original plan if she went off and did something else instead.

But she didn't.

She arrived at her destination.

...At least, that's what the map on her phone said. What stood in front of her was a dilapidated four-story building that looked like it hadn't been used in _years_.

She looked at her phone, then back at the building, then back at her phone, then back at the building.

…

What?

Was this really the right place? The map said it was, but the state of the structure said otherwise. The welcome sign over the doors was tilted. Only a few windows had a complete set of glass panes. Heck, the entire thing had _construction blockades_ surrounding it aside from the front door itself. All that stuff made it stand out from the much cleaner buildings surrounding it. This wasn't even a bad neighborhood – shouldn't there be some zoning ordinance for this kind of thing?

She couldn't imagine an actual hero office being located in there. Even the ones that were struggling put in enough maintenance to keep their buildings welcoming to the general public. This just screamed 'crack den full of squatters that refuse to pay rent'. It was hard to believe anyone legit would operate in this amount of disrepair.

But... well... this was it. She had no other lead. She only had one map to a single place, and this was it. If it wasn't the right one, she'd have hit a dead end.

An ounce of relief crept along the pit in her stomach among the annoyance. If there was nothing here, there was nothing more she could do. If there was nothing more she could do, she could resign herself to doing nothing and at least have an excuse for it, which is what she should've done in the _first_ place. She had nothing to do with it. It wasn't her business. She could keep telling herself that and it would be true. Because all she _could_ do was sit on the side and do nothing.

But if this _was_ the right place...

If her gut _was_ right...

...

She'd... play it by ear.

There was a lone piece of paper taped to the right of the double doors, and from a distance it looked to be the contact info she hoped for. But upon closer inspection it looked to just be some flier for some local event that happened months ago. And she _reeeeeeally_ doubted the contact info on it was what she was looking for. Though it was kinda weird seeing that much age on the paper – usually people took them down as soon as they noticed them.

Also she could see graffiti now that she was beyond those outside borders. And that obviously wasn't gonna help. Beyond maybe giving the indications that no one was in there. Because removing spray paint was just a matter of cleaning it or painting over it. At a glance it was "obviously" abandoned.

But inside the building itself? There was the buzz of electricity, the hum of a microwave, and various noises coming from a single person inside. She'd pressed a jack against the door before she'd realized it; even without going directly inside, it wasn't hard to tell that it wasn't a normal hero office (if the state of the exterior wasn't enough of an indication).

But the important thing was that someone _was_ there.

So should she just charge in then?

…

Yeah no that was a terrible idea.

She glanced around. There wasn't a doorbell or anything she could ring.

She'd have to knock then.

So she did. The door creaked slightly.

A minute passed. No one came.

"Hello?"

No answer.

…

Would taking a little look hurt?

She wrapped her fingers around the door handle. Maybe it would be fine if she just pushed it a little and peeked. No one would notice, right? There wasn't even a latch. She could probably just pretend it was the wind or something no harm no foul.

And she was just about to try when footsteps came towards the door.

She jumped back.

The door cracked open a few moments later. In the opened space was a little old man in a hero costume.

"Hah? Who're you?"

A little old _senile_ man in a hero costume, from the looks of it. He seemed entirely harmless standing in front of her like that. Like he was wearing that suit just for kicks.

But he _did_ resemble the guy she saw in that Kamino footage. And there weren't too many old timer heroes with bright yellow scarves out there.

Well, only one way to know for sure.

"Gran Torino?"

He stared for a moment.

"Wat? I'm not a girl."

Okay. So it was him.

"Oh no- My name's Kyouka Jirou."

"And what, yer' here to sell cookies?" He tilted his head to the side. "I'm more of a taiyaki man, myself!"

A grain of apprehension leaked into his voice.

Jirou shook her head.

"No, I'm here because I go to U.A. with Midoriya."

He blinked. She continued.

"Fluffy green hair? Freckles? Yea big?" She shook her hand flat a few centimeters above her head. "You know, the guy who had field training with you?"

His eyes narrowed, and his tone changed in an instant.

"I already told the kid I wasn't taking him in again." He glared. "So whaddaya want."

Warning bells went off in her head. The guy may have acted like a senile old fart not even two minutes ago, but a chill she hadn't felt since the USJ incident ran down her spine.

"If... it's not too much trouble," she broke eye contact and looked to the side, but it didn't make her feel any less sick to her stomach, "I'd like to ask a few questions about him."

"Ask'im yerself."

She probably should've, but she didn't. And she wasn't going to. Midoriya didn't want anyone to know about his quirk. All Might didn't want _him_ to know about Shigaraki's investigation. And yet Jirou knew about both while the former two remained unaware.

And she was going to keep it that way. They all lived on campus together. They all had to see each other every day. All those secrets were secrets for a _reason_. They weren't _shared_ for a reason. And Jirou was no exception to that 'don't tell anyone' rule. At best, her telling them what she knew would end in getting told to stay out of it for her own good – at worst it would make them paranoid, which could impact their judgment at the worst possible moment and end in someone getting _killed_ if the gravity of all this was as big as she imagined.

Going to any of the other U.A. staff was a terrible idea for the same reason (on top of Recovery Girl and the principal seemingly being the only others who knew about the successor bit): The teachers definitely knew about All Might's true form, but there had to be a reason they were being kept out of the loop. Going to the police would be even worse; All Might may have a friend in there, but that didn't mean the whole department knew.

That's why going to someone in the loop, but off-campus and away from the authorities was the best idea – it was the only one that had a decent chance of turning out okay for everyone involved. Gran Torino already knew about All Might and Midoriya being his successor, so he obviously knew not to tell anyone. And since they were alone and there was no one else there, there was no way anyone else could listen in on their conversation. And if he decided not to share anything, that would be it. No awkwardness with All Might or Midoriya, no interrogation by the police. She could just go about her day after and pretend nothing happened.

At least, that's what her logic dictated at the time.

Now she wasn't so sure.

Actually, she _really_ wasn't sure.

Seriously, this guy didn't know her.

He just knew she somehow managed to find him. When it was clear he didn't want to be found.

And now she was asking questions about a kid that trained under him when said kid lived in the same _building_ as her.

Why _wouldn't_ that be taken as suspicious?

...

But he was giving her an out, right?

She could leave.

She could do something else.

Anything else.

Screw her instincts.

She wasn't a part of this.

She wasn't _supposed_ to be a part of this.

Trying to act like she was would hurt more than it could ever help.

 _Why couldn't she just_ _ **get**_ _that?!_

 _All she had to do was **go**._

Just go.

Just go.

Just go

just go justgo

justgojustgojustgojustgo

justgojustgojustgojustgojustgo _justgojustgojustgojustgojustgo_ _ **justgoJUSTGO**_ **.**

 _ **GO.**_

She clenched her fist.

"...It's about his quirk."

 _ **JUST GO.**_

Gran Torino's voice gained an extra edge to it.

"And?"

 _ **DON'T DO THIS.**_

She gulped.

"And... how he got it."

…

..

.

Time stopped.

.

Gran Torino's expression didn't change.

.

But his eyes alone threatened to slice her in two.

.

Jirou tried to stay still.

.

But her heart was ready to burst.

.

He knew.

.

There wasn't anything she could say to take that back.

.

So now what?

.

He didn't say anything.

.

Neither did she.

.

They were at a standstill.

.

She didn't know what to do.

.

She didn't know what she _could_ do.

.

But what little reason she had left in her told her to leave.

.

Just _go_.

.

 _ **RUN.**_

.

She took a step back.

.

The tension in the air vanished all at once.

Gran Torino sighed and took a step back himself.

"Come in."

He opened the door the rest of the way. Jirou hesitated before going inside.

Huh.

That was weird.

The room didn't look a thing like she expected.

Actually, it looked more like-

The door slammed shut behind her.

She whipped back.

A cold pit dropped in her stomach.

Gran Torino's eyes locked with hers.

"Alright, kid. What do you know."

* * *

 **A/N:** To... BE CONTINUED!

Help I got too into research and made up a new rail line to make things work.

Though one neat thing I did realize is that there's no shinkansen line that goes North-South from Yamanashi into Shizuoka (or vice versa) even though Deku said it took 45 minutes to get to Gran Torino's place using one. Now it's 4 in the morning and I'm wondering about changes in the MHA verse's rail system.

I also didn't mean for it to turn into a fic following canon from her perspective, but I guess that's what I get for taking so long haha.


	2. You don't want the answers to

**A/N:** Me: You know, we should really make that second chapter already it's been awhile.

Also Me: Okay but what if we made it twice as long as the first.

Also Me: And sat on it for a year and a half.

Me:

Anyway, I'm done. Take it. TAKE IT, I SAY.

* * *

Jirou stared wide-eyed.

Gran Torino glared back.

Silence hung in the air between them.

.

Seconds ticked by.

Jirou grimaced.

Her breath got caught in her throat.

.

Well.

This was it.

She was here.

She found who she was looking for.

And now they were alone.

In a building.

And the only way out was blocked.

There really _was_ no turning back now, was there.

She looked to the side. Then behind her. Partly because she wanted to get a better look at her surroundings. Mostly because she'd probably crack if she tried to keep eye contact any longer.

The room looked more like an apartment than any kind of hero office. There wasn't a reception desk or anything that would normally be used to greet clients. The closest thing to it were a pair of blue couches with a coffee table in between them to her right – maybe the table for two behind it as well. To the right of _them_ was a small kitchenette with a fireplace next to it. And all the way in the back stood a shelf stuffed with books, with various papers and newspaper clippings spanning from a single corkboard next to it.

It wasn't a fancy establishment (actually, to say it was run-down would really be an understatement), but it also wasn't a place she'd expect a pro hero to work – or even live in. If anything, it seemed like the kind of place she'd expect to find a college student tight on cash. Or even a small fry villain who wanted their own secret hideout. Not a professional hero.

Though décor aside, there was a worrying amount of cracks and dents in, well, everything. The floor, walls, and even the ceiling had what looked to be impact damage. Was there some kind of fight in here recently? Gran Torino didn't _look_ like he had any injuries. Maybe he just got the building that way. But whatever it was, Jirou guessed they weren't _too_ bad, since he'd never bothered to patch them up.

Speaking of which – Gran Torino tapped his foot impatiently.

"Go on."

Ergh.

She fiddled with one of her lobes, letting it stretch down to her waist. She rubbed her neck with the other hand. She could feel her face stretch into a nervous grin.

"Man, where do I even _start_?"

There were the conversations she wasn't supposed to listen in on. There were the meetings everyone knew about, but no one knew _what_ they were about. There were things like how Midoriya's body wasn't acclimated to his quirk and couldn't draw out its full potential. There were other like how All Might was still in on an investigation despite being _retired_.

What was important?

What _wasn't_ important?

How was she supposed to know?

Were there things even _he_ didn't know?

There was a lot of information to go over.

There were a lot of questions to ask.

But what was it he _really_ wanted to know?

...

Gran Torino sighed.

He began to close the gap between them.

Jirou flinched.

Her hands were in front of her before she realized it.

But instead of attacking, interrogating, or even yelling at her, Gran Torino gestured to the couches. His voice softened, but remained stern.

"Go sit down. Make yourself comfortable."

He made his way to the microwave. She followed orders and took a seat on the couch facing the door, setting her bag down by her feet. An open manila folder sat open on the coffee table between them, papers stacked neatly on top of one another in two piles inside it. She peered down.

The paper on top had a picture of a guy not too much older than her with white hair. He was wearing sweatpants and a long-sleeved shirt. A detached hand covered his face, and more hands were latched onto various parts of his body. The picture itself was a little blurry – like it was taken in the field; not a mugshot or anything. The name next to the picture identified the man as 'Tomura Shigaraki'.

...

Huh.

She'd never actually seen him before, but that wasn't what she expected based on everyone's descriptions. The hand was an obvious thing Tsuyu and the rest all recounted easily, but Jirou had expected him to look more, well, _villain_ -like. Not that he didn't look weird at all (see: hands). It's just that more often than not villains were generally, well, big and buff and super scary-looking. This guy looked like he'd have trouble just being a mook.

That aside, the fact that there were so many pages in the stacks themselves said there was a fair amount of information on the case. Too bad she couldn't just pick of the folder and leaf through it. Though one thing she _did_ notice on that top page was another name under the first-

A plate of taiyaki was unceremoniously dropped on top of the very paper she was just looking at.

She flinched.

Gran Torino sat a glass of water next to the folder, then took a seat across from her with a cup of his own. He motioned to the plate.

"Take one."

So she did.

One bite. Then another. Not bad at all, but it did make her realize how hungry she really was. She hadn't had microwave taiyaki since she was a kid. And this was the last place she expected to have it again. It took more than a bit of self-restraint to stop herself from wolfing it down all in one go and chugging the water with it.

Gran Torino didn't say anything as she ate, and waited until she finished to ask:

"Feel better?"

She nodded.

"Yeah."

Gran Torino folded his arms. His voice was calm and even with underlying focus. He hadn't let his guard down entirely, but at least it looked like he didn't think she was some kind of villain.

"Alright, start from the beginning."

So she did.

She told him how she overheard some of the conversations between All Might and Recovery Girl earlier on in the year. How she thought that it was just a disease All Might had. How the mentions of old injuries made that option seem less and less likely.

She told him how she told one of her friends that she thought All Might was sick. How the class came together and gave him a card. How she was called into the principal's office and had a talk with him because of it. How he didn't tell her anything else. How certain areas of the school were now soundproofed.

She told him how Recovery Girl called Midoriya All Might's successor. How Midoriya's childhood friend had called him quirkless at the beginning of the school year. How she came to the conclusion that Midoriya got All Might's quirk, but didn't have any evidence to back it up until much later (and even then, it was nothing physical).

And she told him that now there wasn't any explanation she could think of _but_ that. And that she knew there was way more to this than even what she overheard. And that she wanted to know more – because this was huge, and she had a feeling things weren't quite over yet when it came to the Villain Alliance.

Gran Torino stayed quiet through the whole thing, but kept his eyes fixed on her. He gave the occasional nod and kept up a poker face. But things like the heartbeat, breathing, and small gulps were enough to show he hadn't become a statue (even if he didn't like what he was hearing). At least her explanation didn't activate any fight-or-flight instincts.

And when she finished, she stopped talking. Silence hung in the air for a few moments. Until Gran Torino cut through it with another question.

"And how exactly did that bring you _here_?"

There was an perplexed edge to his voice. Jirou couldn't blame him. She'd be weirded out too if some stranger showed up on her doorstep talking about things no one besides a select few should even be _aware_ of.

"Your name was mentioned once when All Might-sensei and Detective Tsukauchi were talking. I also heard your conversation with Midoriya about the internships."

He frowned.

"Eavesdropping's real rude, kid."

"I know. I just-" She didn't mention the promise, and she wasn't going to try and justify what she was doing. It probably wouldn't make any difference in however he reacted. "I did research of my own too."

"That doesn't explain how you found my address. I don't have a website or a public number. It keeps the riffraff away." Yeah. Things would've been _way_ easier if he did. And she wouldn't have had to waste countless hours on google and other search engines instead of doing something more productive with her time.

"There was this little hero forum I found – I can give you the link if you want." Though she'd have to check her bookmarks for the name again; it wasn't Lurkers or even one of its offshoots. "But all it had was a map someone drew in Paint. I didn't expect to actually _find_ you here."

It was almost surreal how things managed to turn out this way. Here she was sitting on a stranger's couch an hour away from anyone she actually knew chatting about things with more weight than anything a high schooler should be in on. Said stranger being one of the few people in the whole _world_ in the know about the greatest secret of Japan's (former) #1 hero. And Jirou had somehow managed to find vague directions to his home, managed to _follow_ those vague directions without getting lost, _and_ managed to find the right person on top of it. And she was lucky enough not to get immediately booted out and reported to the authorities. Instead she was let in, and fed _taiyaki_ of all things.

Maybe she should spring for a lottery ticket on the way home.

Gran Torino snorted, but his face stayed solemn.

"And you know you can't tell anyone else about any of this."

"Yes."

"But you want to know more."

"I do."

"And that's why your here."

"It is."

Gran Torino paused for a moment, pondering, then asked:

"So whaddaya wanna know?"

Jirou blinked.

"Just like that?"

"Don't get me wrong, Kid. I'm not gonna answer your questions outta the goodness of my heart." The fingers on one hand rapped on his upper arm. "You _already_ know enough to be dangerous. Might as well sate your curiosity before you do something stupid."

Well _that_ made her feel a whole lot better.

A small bit of apprehension ticked at the back of her mind, but she pushed it down. This was her only chance to get some answers. She had to make it count.

"Well... I'd like some clarification on a few things first, if that's okay."

"Alright. Shoot."

"Well... I guess to start..." She clenched her fists at her knees. Her gaze drifted to her left. "So Midoriya got his quirk from All Might-sensei, right?"

She knew the answer to that, but it was as good a lead-in as any.

"He did."

"Did All Might-sensei get that quirk from someone else?"

"Yep."

So it _was_ a line of succession thing. But if she had to guess where _he_ got it from...

"Was it you?"

"Good _lord_ no." She could _see_ him stifle a laugh at that. Hey, it wasn't like she had anyone _else_ to guess.

"Then who?"

"A close friend of mine." It was his turn to look away. "You wouldn't know her."

Okay, but a name would've been nice.

"Well she was a hero, right? Did she do most of her work underground?"

All Might had been a hero longer than Jirou'd been _alive_ ; and from what she could gather, that power was slowly leeched from the former user after they transferred their quirk. That coupled with the fact that she'd never heard anyone so much as _mention_ this mystery predecessor said she was retired at the very least.

Though the lingering ache in his voice said the reality was likely not so good.

"She was a hero, yeah; but you're not gonna find much more info for her than you would me."

"So pretty much nothing." That probably sounded almost callous knowing that this predecessor was probably, well, not alive. But it would also be presumptuous of her to jump straight to sympathy for 'Gran Torino's loss'.

"Yep." Thankfully, Gran Torino didn't seem to think anything of it.

It was weird, though: Why would he make a point not to mention neither her hero nor real name? Jirou knew better that to press that one particular issue when there was so much more to ask. That meant she would have to look up female heroes with quirks eerily similar to All Might's if she wanted any info. And it would all be _decades_ old at the very least.

"Is there any way we could get in touch with her or even any of the other people that had that quirk?"

This woman had never been mentioned before in any of the conversations she'd listened in on, but that didn't mean she was gone entirely. After all, Gran Torino was old – it was rare-enough (relatively) when heroes continued working past their prime; but continuing until they were old and grey was nearly unheard of. And anyone that had the quirk before her would be straight-up _ancient_. For all Jirou knew, one or a few of All Might's predecessors _could_ be living it up all retired somewhere despite the signs that made the answer as obvious as a megaphone blaring in her ear.

But Gran Torino sighed.

His looked down at his cup.

Ah.

"Sorry, kid. All the others died in battle." A grimace flickered across his face. "All Might's the exception, not the rule."

And All Might was retired. Which meant he wasn't going to be doing anymore hero work. Which meant no more battles. And no more saving anyone. And everyone else who had that quirk probably never lived to an old age.

And coupled with everything she knew from before...

"So does that mean..." She gulped, but continued on.

" _Is_ All Might dying?"

She knew the answer to that – no one lived forever, after all. She wasn't sure why she even bothered to ask. No one had said it outright. Maybe in a way, she just wanted someone else to confirm it so she could brace for the inevitable.

Gran Torino quirked an eyebrow.

"...I take it that means he still hasn't told the kid yet."

So that was a yes.

He hadn't stated it directly, but Jirou wasn't sure how else that statement could be interpreted. She ignored the hollow pit that began to form in her chest.

"Well... I can't listen in on their conversations-" anymore "-but I don't think he has. Or at least, nothing about Midoriya says that he knows."

Gran Torino grimaced at that.

"So what gave you the idea then?"

"Well... Recovery Girl said he'd be lucky to make it to Midoriya's graduation." Though All Might himself had beaten worse odds before. "I don't know what it is, exactly; but it has to do with his old injuries, right? I mean- transferring his quirk isn't gonna be what kills him, right?"

"It's not likely." Though his tone said that was a straight 'no'.

"If the transfer's not what's doing it, what is it? Shouldn't his retirement be enough to stop his condition from worsening if it was just his hero work?" All Might wasn't beating up baddies anymore. The most exercise he got now was the walking he did around campus. If anything, that meant he _should_ make it to their graduation with a few years to spare.

"It ain't that simple, Kid." The dread that came along with it said that was a real understatement.

"How come?"

A simple-enough question.

"...Let's change the subject."

Or not.

"Okay..." As suspicious as it was for him to avoid saying that, Jirou wasn't going to argue just yet. "What about the quirk itself? I've never heard of a quirk able to be passed down to other people."

A pause.

"I'll probably regret telling you this, but..." Gran Torino grabbed a taiyaki off the plate and continued. Jirou leaned in slightly closer and listened quietly.

"His quirk: It's called One for All."

"Its user aren't exactly known for their permanence."

"The kid's number nine in a line of users. Think about how long quirks have been around and do the math."

Jirou gulped.

"What happened to them...?" She knew they died fighting, but they way he was describing it made it seem like more than just a coincidence.

"You know that villain All Might fought? That one in the Kamino ward?"

"Yeah?"

"That guy? His quirk is its counterpart: It's called All for One. The whole purpose of passing down One for All is taking 'im down eventually." He took another swig from his mug and continued.

"I'm sure you can figure how they kicked it."

"But All Might _did_ that." She saw the fight on TV. He _won_. That villain was carted off in an iron maiden. Everyone saw it live.

"And with any luck, all the kid'll have to deal with is the 'Symbol of Peace' mantle when he graduates."

 _What_?

"'With any luck?' That villain's in a maximum-security prison! He's in _Tartarus_!"

She hadn't meant to raise her voice like that, but that guy even took out _Endeavor_ like he was nothing. How was _anyone_ supposed to beat him now that All Might him _self_ was out of commission?!

But Gran Torino didn't even flinch.

"We're talking about a quirk that can steal other quirks and compound them. You _really_ think they're gonna be able to keep him there forever?"

 _ **What?**_

"All for One can steal quirks...?"

"M'hm."

"Is... that what happened to Ragdoll?" She heard the news. Ragdoll couldn't use her quirk anymore. And if it was stolen, it probably wasn't coming back on its own.

"It is."

"Then is there any way to make him give it _back_?"

"All for One can bestow quirks too, but good luck ever getting him to do it willingly."

Jirou knew full well that real life quirks weren't balanced like they would be in a movie or videogame, but this was just ridiculous. Some people had super hearing. Jirou had super hearing _and_ stretchy ears _and_ the ability to channel her heartbeat to blow things up. But here's a guy who could take quirks, use them (if the Kamino footage was any indication), _and_ give them to other people. How was _anyone_ supposed to take that down?

"Who's he _given_ quirks to then?"

"The first user of One for All, for starters. It's why the quirk exists in the first place."

"What? How'd that even _work_?"

"One for All was created when All for One forced a strength quirk onto his younger brother, who unbeknownst to him had a quirk that could pass itself and nothing else. The two somehow combined and now here we are."

"Wait what? Seriously, what?"

"Yep." _Not helpful_.

Ugh. Okay fine. So All for One's the big bad and his brother was One for All (for lack of a better name). Apparently quirks can combine now. All for One's so old he was around back when there was no way to test if someone had a quirk or not. Which meant he had some kind of immortality quirk as well.

Great. Just. Great.

Though that did make her wonder.

"Then how'd he figure out he could pass it on?"

"Let's just stick to the stuff that's relevant for now. I'm telling you how the first user got it in the first place so you'd have context on just _why_ we're doing this, but there's nothing else I could tell you about the other early ones in general that would help you now."

And that was the truth. Even if she managed to get that specific bit of info, it would probably be extraneous at best. And like he said, all the other users but All Might and Midoriya were dead. At this point it mattered more the fact that the quirk could transfer at all than how the first user figured out how to do it.

"Okay... But if All for One did that, couldn't he just steal the quirk back?"

"It's funny you ask that. One for All's the one quirk he can't steal – he'd have done just that otherwise. Lucky for us, it can only be given willingly."

Lucky indeed, since basic logic dictated that One for All was one of the only quirks that could take him down. And she wasn't sure _if_ there were any others.

It was a little weird, though. You'd think transferring a quirk would make you unable to use it at all. But both Midoriya and All Might used that super strength during those first few months.

"So Midoriya got that quirk, but All Might was still doing hero work through the school year. Does that mean it's a gradual process?"

"Nope. The way the quirk works is that the power each user gets stacked from user to user; but once you transfer it, you're left with a finite amount and that's it."

"So that incident with All for One..."

Gran Torino grimaced.

"Yep. Kamino took out what was left."

Which didn't make her feel any better.

Now that All Might didn't have One for All, the source of the power that made him the strongest hero in all of Japan, he probably wouldn't be able to take on any other villains that strong even if he was perfectly healthy. Top that off with all his injuries and it's no wonder his retirement was permanent.

So then if All for One was going to break out...

That meant it would fall on All Might's successor to take him down again.

But All Might's injury was old. Midoriya clearly hadn't had the quirk for that long. Which made her wonder.

"So then... why Midoriya?"

"Huh?"

"I mean- All for One's been around for what, a century? More? What made All Might choose Midoriya of all people to be his successor?"

Midoriya was doing really well for someone with a quirk he didn't grow up with, even if his body wasn't used to it. But his inherent quirklessness was already a strike against him. Sure, there were a few quirkless heroes here and there, but they were really rare and none of them had ever made it to the upper echelons of the hero rankings. And most of them relied on gadgets. And he, well, _didn't_.

Wouldn't it make more sense to give it to someone who already had a quirk? Someone like Todoroki, for example, would go from being the class juggernaut to straight-up _terrifying_.

It wasn't like Jirou thought Midoriya was undeserving or anything. He was one of the quickest in class to throw himself headfirst into danger, consequences be damned. He was one of the best strategists out of all of them. He was great at adapting in team exercises and coordinating everyone's quirks. He was making steady progress at controlling his own quirk. He was one of the most motivated and hardest working kids in a department of 40 kids per year that regularly had almost _11,000 applications during the entrance exams_.

It's just that he didn't have the obvious build or charisma one would expect from the Symbol of Peace's successor. And apparently he'd only gotten into U.A. because he rescued Uraraka from the no-point robot during the exam and shattered most of his limbs in the process. He was, to put it bluntly, a total dweeb at the beginning of the school year. It didn't make _sense_ that All Might would choose someone like that with the threat of annihilation looming over his head.

Gran Torino sighed. He knew what she meant.

"Well, we _thought_ All for One died six years ago – same time All Might got his injury. It wasn't until a couple months ago we realized that wasn't the case."

"And by then, the quirk had already been transferred..." Jirou said to herself, soft but still audible.

"Yep."

That made sense.

Wait- she wasn't trying to sound like she didn't want him to have that quirk or anything. Or trying to argue that it was a bad idea. Man, that's not what she was going for.

"Oh- I didn't mean anything by that, by the way." She shook her hands in front of her chest, then moved one to the back of her head. "It's just- well-"

Gran Torino just sighed and waved a hand dismissively.

"Nah, I understand. Kids your age almost all have quirks and you're at U.A. to boot. Makes sense to wonder why _he's_ the chosen one." There was a little bite to that sentence, but nothing scathing. In fact, it brought a small smile to his lips instead.

Anyway, whether Midoriya was originally quirkless or not didn't matter anymore now that he had One for All. Sure, he didn't have anything to augment it, but that wouldn't be much of a problem once he was strong-enough to punch through buildings and propel himself forward faster than even some people with speed quirks.

But how was _All Might_ going to fight if the villains attacked again if _he_ didn't have it anymore?

"Actually, speaking of quirks..." She brought both hands back to her lap. "I know All Might-sensei's never told the media what his quirk really is, but is his other one at least something he can use?"

Maybe he had a really powerful healing factor? Maybe he had something completely useless like bendy fingers or nose extension? Whatever it was, she hoped it was something he could at least utilize to _some_ degree.

"Seriously, kid?" What? It's not like she had any idea of what it _actually_ was.

"I mean- I've only ever seen his super strength. And that's what One for All is, right?" She scratched her head. "And it's not like the other one got overwritten, right?"

"Doesn't matter. He's not going back on the front lines."

Both sentences had hidden subtext, but Jirou wasn't sure how to parse it. Of _course_ he wasn't going back on the front lines. He technically wasn't a hero anymore, after all. But certainly _did_ matter what his quirk was. How _else_ was he going to fight if he had to? Gadgets? Martial arts? A gun?

"Well I mean- I _know_ he's retired, but what is he supposed to do if we _do_ get attacked again?"

She gulped.

Her hands balled into fists.

More words fell out her mouth before she could even think to stop.

"What are _we_ supposed to do?"

Gran Torino stared at the table for a moment.

Then sighed.

"Guess you think I've got all the answers, huh kid."

"I mean... You've told me more than anyone else has. And you seem to know everything that's going on." And are actually willing to answer questions about it. "So that means there's gotta be some kinda plan, right?"

"Like you said: All Might's retired, so he's focusing on teaching. But otherwise the plan is to just round up everyone affiliated with the Villain Alliance before they can do any real damage – including going after you kids again."

"And what about Midoriya?"

Gran Torino blinked.

"What about 'im?"

"Well... Midoriya's the center of all this, isn't he? What's his role specifically?" Obviously he wasn't going to be hunting down league members on by himself or anything like that, but he _could_ potentially get in on the lighter end of the action right now.

"He's All Might's successor. _That's_ his role." Nothing else? "But the idea is to get all this nonsense settled _before_ he has to deal with it himself. Can't do much with just a provisional license anyway."

"Yeah." And being confined to U.A. meant he wasn't going to be able to sneak out and do hero stuff on his own regardless. "I'm pretty sure he's interning with Sir Nighteye, though. Are they targeting the league?"

"Sir Nighteye and All Might haven't coordinated anything in years." The annoyance in his tone said that there was a reason for that. "Even so, I doubt he's gonna let the kid get in too much trouble on his own."

"So right now he's just focusing on getting stronger." Simple enough. That's what everyone else at school was doing too. And seeing as how they were in the country's top hero school, there wasn't going to be any question on how much that education would benefit them all.

"Yep."

"Makes sense."

Gran Torino paused to grab another taiyaki.

Then took a bite.

Then suggested:

"And you're figuring that since he's a good friend of yours, you'll help him out with that."

…

Huh.

'Friend.'

Gran Torino had said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, and his logic made sense, but...

"Well... He's not, to be honest." She _did_ consider Midoriya a friend, yeah; but only in the same way she considered everyone _else_ in Class A her friend. It wasn't like they went out of their way to talk or get to know each other. They were friendly acquaintances at _most_.

"You're going this far to help him."

Anyone would if they knew what she did.

"I'd have already told him I knew if we were. Everything I know about this is from hearing it secondhand."

It wasn't that she avoided him or anything. It was more that their friend groups didn't really overlap. Jirou mostly hung out with the other girls, and Uraraka was the only girl Midoriya talked with on a regular basis. Midoriya mostly spent time with Iida and Todoroki; Jirou never had a reason to getting buddy-buddy with either of them.

She continued, gently waving her hands in front of her.

"Don't get me wrong – he's a really good guy! We've just never had any reason to get close."

Gran Torino's eyes furrowed.

"...Then just what are you planning on doing with this information, kid?"

Indeed, what.

She came for answers. She was getting those answers. But in hindsight, she hadn't actually put much thought into what would happen _after_ getting those answers. Part of it was because she didn't know what she didn't know. Another was because she never expected to get this far in the first place. So...

"Well... I don't know, to be honest."

Gran Torino just snorted at that.

"You tracked me down, found out where I live, rode a train for _god_ -knows-how-long, and you don't know."

Well when he put it _that_ way...

"I mean, I _want_ to help him." She grimaced. "I just don't know _how_."

"So what're you expecting to do? Follow him around and protect 'im without 'im knowing it like some kinda guardian angel?"

Hah. _That_ would be a sight to see.

"I _know_ he can take care of himself." And she knew _she_ would be the one getting saved if there was another attack at this point. "It's just... I know this is something big. If there's anything I can do to help, I want to do it. And I know more than pretty much anyone else at school."

More than Midoriya himself, at this point.

"Users of One for All usually have a close friend they can trust to keep their secret. I was Nana's. Toshi- _All Might_ has that cop friend of his. Who's the kid got, if not you?"

Good question.

She thought back over the school year. There wasn't anyone who actively _dis_ liked Midoriya (anymore, at least), but of the people he hung out with the most...

Uraraka was his closest female friend, and was apparently the first person in their class (Bakugou aside) that he'd met in the beginning of the school year. She wore her heart on her sleeve, even if she was trying to change that; but Jirou had never seen anything that said she knew more than she was letting on.

Iida was the class president and next in line to take on the Ingenium name. He was earnest to a fault and there was no way he would refuse Midoriya if asked for assistance. Plus trusting a secret with someone with that kind of lineage would have its benefits. But there was no way he wouldn't have mentioned it at least once behind closed doors.

Todoroki was the kid of the now-#1-hero. Jirou didn't exactly know the context of what Midoriya yelled at him during the sports festival; but whatever it was, it got through to him and he chilled out after (for the most part; he still had some latent anger issues he _really_ needed to work on). And now the two of them were best friends. And yet he never said anything suspicious either.

Those three looked to be the kids he was closest to, and Jirou knew they were all good people; but not _one_ of them had _ever_ given any hints of knowing anything more than the others. Which was nothing. Apparently Todoroki thought Midoriya was All Might's kid at one point, but that was the closest thing any one of them had and it was _still_ way off the mark.

But if they weren't in on it, who else could...

...

Memories of the night following the license exam crept back into her mind.

The fight that occurred while seemingly no one else was awake.

How it was All Might himself who put a stop to it.

How it took the two of them a strangely long time to come back to the dorms after.

How the strain on their relationship was almost gone now, even if it didn't look it at a glance.

…

That was probably the answer.

"Well... there's Katsuki Bakugou. I think."

Gran Torino cocked an eyebrow.

" _That_ spiky ball a' TNT?"

Yes that spiky ball of TNT.

"Yeah. I'm not a 100% sure on it, but if there's anyone else our age that knows about Midoriya's quirk, it's probably him."

She continued. "But besides maybe him, I don't think anyone knows but me. He's got some close friends, but it doesn't sound like he's told them yet."

"So you think you're gonna do it in their stead?"

 _Could_ she?

She shrugged.

"I guess so."

Gran Torino locked eyes with her.

She froze.

He spoke.

"You don't sound too sure."

She really wasn't.

Jirou wasn't _useless_ , but there was no chance that Midoriya would choose her over any one of his actual friends to carry his secret on if he had any say in the matter.

And given the gravity of the situation, it made sense he hadn't told any of them yet. He didn't like it when people worried about him, after all.

But _Jirou_ knew his secret, and there wasn't anything he could do to change that.

She wasn't the strongest.

Or the fastest.

Or the smartest.

She just had a quirk that let her hear things she shouldn't and enough of a brain to put two and two together.

But if he really _didn't_ have anyone else...

She gulped.

Then nodded.

"I will."

Gran Torino reached over to grab the last taiyaki off the plate.

"You're gonna get a lot more than you bargained for, kid." He took a bite. "I can tell you that."

Gee. Thanks. Not like she wasn't _already_ getting more than she bargained for.

"So what can I do in the meantime?"

"Get stronger and give 'im support when he needs it."

"Nothing specific?"

"Not unless yer' planning on being his sidekick or his secretary."

"Yeah no." She had her own plans for the future and they didn't revolve around Midoriya, as much as she was worrying now. There wasn't even any guarantee that things were gonna get worse from here on out. She wasn't to put everything on hold for something that wasn't even certain.

"Just make sure you two actually have a talk sooner than later. The middle of a fight's not the place to be droppin' a bombshell like that."

That... was something she had to do, wasn't it. Midoriya wasn't exactly a mind reader. He wasn't going to know she knew unless she told him directly. And unless she did... well... how _else_ was he gonna know?

She swallowed, then looked Gran Torino in the eye and said in the most determined tone of voice she could muster:

"Got it."

But she broke eye contact as soon as she finished that sentence.

Gran Torino looked like he was considering something. He brought a curled finger to his chin. It was a few moments before he spoke again.

"...Tell me, kid. What's the range of that quirk of yours?"

Huh. That came out of nowhere.

"If you mean the surveillance part: it depends on where I am and the noise around me; but if I'm in a building, I can usually hear everything going on inside."

Gran Torino nodded, then reached into his pocket.

"Alright, gimme your phone."

...

"Huh?"

"And put your number in mine." He tossed the smartphone onto her lap and finished the last bite of the taiyaki in his other hand. "You're still a brat now, but that power could be useful later."

There was an implicit _'for this investigation'_ at the end. She chose not to have him confirm that.

Instead she unlocked her phone and handed it to him with a small "okay.", then went to fill in her contact info on his.

It was quick. Just her name and number. No selfie pic or anything extra.

She hit finish. Her contact was open. She instinctively hit the back button.

There were only a few names on the list. She saw Midoriya's and Detective Tsukauchi's among them, but didn't recognize any of the others. Shouldn't All Might's number be there too? Well- he probably wouldn't be labeled 'All Might' if they'd known each other that long. What was his real name again?

Though one name _did_ catch her eye. It was located right above her own.

 _'Nana Shimura'._

Huh. Where had she heard that name befo-

Oh.

Gran Torino had mentioned a Nana before.

And the context her name was used in said she was All Might's predecessor.

There was only one Nana on that list.

It couldn't be her, could it?

That Nana was dead. And likely had been for a very long time.

And Nana was a pretty common name, right?

It was probably someone else.

Except...

Something else clicked.

The surname.

Jirou's eyes were on the now-empty taiyaki plate before she realized it.

...

She grimaced and reopened her own contact page. Best to pretend she didn't see anything. She wasn't even _trying_ to snoop this time.

Thankfully Gran Torino's eyes were focused on her phone.

He looked up a moment later. They locked eyes.

"Y'done?"

There was really no reason for that to startle her. But it did.

"Um- yeah."

"Alright. Give it here."

They traded their phones back (without any tossing this time). Jirou looked at the name on the contact page.

 _Jii Torino_.

That wasn't his real name, was it? It wasn't often that heroes used their own names as their aliases, though there were kanji here as opposed to the normal katakana (if pages upon pages of google search results with that name were any indication). Though the fact that the Jii used the kanji for 'old man' was a good indication that the spelling for his name was different, if nothing else.

Gran Torino seemed to read her mind.

"It's not my real name, but you should be able to remember it's me."

She probably should've done the same thing.

"Oh, I put my real name in yours. Should I change it? I can-"

"Forget it. I'll do it later."

"Okay..."

So that was that. She was curious about that contact and the potential connections that came with it, but obviously she couldn't just bring it up directly.

Hopefully the _next_ weird segue wouldn't give him that much of a clue.

Jirou gulped.

"So, if I can ask..."

"Yeah?"

"Just... who is Tomura Shigaraki?" Her eyes flicked to the plate again.

Gran Torino frowned. It didn't get past him.

"Those documents're classified."

Truth, but also a deflection.

"All Might and Detective Tsukauchi were talking about him."

"And?"

" _And_ it doesn't make sense that All Might would be asking about just him if he were being kept up on everyone else All for One was associated with." The league wasn't huge, but there was a number of members. Those members were equally deadly in their own right, but they didn't seem to be a bunch of zealots blindly spreading the word of their leader. In that case, nabbing Shigaraki wouldn't lead to much if they didn't get all the others with him.

"...You're real observant, kid. I'll give you that. But he's a criminal – one who's hurt a lot of people."

"He doesn't look that much older than us."

An observation more than any kind of argument. She knew what he was capable of. He was the one who led the charge on the attacks against U.A.. He didn't see anything wrong with trying to kill _literal teenagers_ if he meant getting to All Might. Aizawa took _weeks_ to recover after USJ even _with_ Recovery Girl helping with the treatment. Anyone who knew that would be an idiot to underestimate him.

"He isn't. But that doesn't make him any less dangerous." Gran Torino laced his fingers together. "It looks like All for One's propping him up to be his successor, which means Shigaraki is going to try and rebuild his empire. The sooner he's behind bars, the better."

He said it as if it were certain, but his tone said otherwise. His words were calm and controlled, but Jirou could hear the tiny ounce of strain that came with them. The strain of regret – that kind that things didn't have to be this way. He didn't want a criminal running loose in the streets if he could help it, obviously.

But even with a few words alone, Jirou could tell he had far too much emotional stock in a man that shouldn't be half as hard to deal with as his predecessor was.

Which all but outright stated they had _some_ sort of connection.

So then...

"It's really weird, though." Jirou brought a curled finger to her chin, and focused her eyes down on the table. "All for One's gotta be _ancient_. Why would he choose a guy so young to succeed him? What makes Shigaraki so _special_?"

A bit on the nose, but they were perfectly valid questions on their own right. A guy over a century old would have all the time in the world to find and groom the perfect successor. And nothing about Jirou's (admittedly limited) knowledge of Shigaraki suggested he was a particularly rare breed of genius or a prodigy. Someone in the business that long wouldn't choose a random kid to do it, so there had to be _some_ reason.

But the answer she'd get would tell her what she _really_ wanted to know.

"...No idea. There's no real background info on him."

Yep.

Two lies in one go.

Gran Torino knew _something_ about Shigaraki's backstory. And the small twist inside him said it was something big.

And yet he wasn't willing to share it, even though he shared pretty much everything else freely.

If Shigaraki had a normal rage, greed, or wrong-side-of-the-tracks backstory, it wouldn't make sense to hide it. Lots of villains were like that. It didn't make any difference in whether they were gonna be arrested or not. At most it would get them mandatory therapy and _maybe_ a lighter sentence. Though Shigaraki would be lucky if ever saw the light of day again given what he'd done.

Which made it all-the-weirder that Gran Torino had misgivings about arresting him.

Maybe Gran Torino knew him.

Maybe he knew someone _related_ to him.

That case file on the table was for Tomura Shigaraki, after all.

But Tomura Shigaraki was just an alias.

He had a real name.

 _'Tenko Shimura'._

And there was a Shimura in Gran Torino's contact list. The kanji were the same. Shimura wasn't exactly a common surname. That alone gave the possibility of _some_ kind of connection.

Nana was the name of the previous One for All user.

Shimura was the only Nana in a contact list with barely any numbers.

If they were the same person, then that Shimura was a close friend of Gran Torino's.

And it would also mean that that Shimura was dead.

It could be a coincidence – Jirou didn't have any actual hard evidence one way or another; but something in her gut told her it wasn't that simple.

If Shigaraki was her son or related to her in some other way, it would only make sense for Gran Torino to feel the way he did. A lot of people looked out for their friends' kids when something happened to said friends. Obviously it would hurt to see them fall as far as he did. Even more so when their parents were such good people.

But if that _was_ the case, then why would Shigaraki choose to become a villain? He was related to a _hero_. And said hero was such a good person that she was granted what had to be one of the strongest quirks in the _world_. She wasn't some asshole in it for the glory who couldn't care less about saving people. She was one who was, well, the complete _opposite_ of that (considering she'd gotten One for All and everything). If anything, he should want to _emulate_ that kind of altruism.

And even putting that aside, how come no one was able to stop him before it got to this point? People rarely became villains for no reason. Shouldn't the people around him have seen the warning signs? Did no one try and help him? Were his problems ones that even _could_ be helped? Though it was obviously too late for that _now_ – what, with Shigaraki being a murderous psychopath leading what was probably one of _the most dangerous villain organizations in all of Japan_.

Even though she wasn't there to witness All Might's fight during the USJ incident, she knew he didn't just let Shigaraki _leave_. And no one ever mentioned that kind of connection either even though that would be _the most obvious thing to bring up_ if anyone was talking about him. Shigaraki's _real name_ was right there in the police file. Sure, Shimura was dead, but wouldn't they have already made the connection anyway if there _was_ one? Wouldn't someone have at least tried to use that to get a hold of him?

One thing the hero program always tried to hit home was that there were a lot of villains with sympathetic backstories; but just because they had their own reasons didn't mean that excused their actions. Stealing in order to help feed your family was still stealing. Murder in order to avenge a loved one was still murder. A criminal committing a crime needed to be arrested, and the judgment dealt to them needed to be through the legal system. And that included people you were related to or friends with.

But theory rarely translated perfectly into reality. Jirou wasn't sure what she'd do if she were in Gran Torino's shoes, to be honest. Ideally, she would put those feelings aside and do her job to catch the villain, regardless of how they were related to people she knew. But she also knew that she'd be a lot more willing to give someone a second chance if she knew them beforehand, and knew they were a good person despite, y'know, being a criminal.

Gran Torino was a seasoned and experienced hero (if almost completely unknown). He wouldn't make the same mistakes a rookie would – including letting someone he knew get away if he had the opportunity to catch them. Because being related to a loved one didn't lessen the impact of his crimes, or change the fact that he tried to murder people (including _kids_ ). Even if some small part of him made him think it was still possible to make Shigaraki see the light.

The regret in his voice made that clear enough.

...

"Kid, you keep starin' at that plate. Just tell me if you want me to make some more."

That jolted Jirou back into reality.

She regained her focus. Right. Still in the middle of a stranger's apartment. Still in the middle of a conversation. Not the time to be overthinking things. Play it cool.

"Oh um- No, I'm fine."

Jirou would be lying if she said she didn't want to know the whole story. But like Gran Torino said, that information was classified. He probably gave her that tidbit because it was related to All for One. And Jirou had a feeling that it also doubled as a way to remind himself that his friend's relative wasn't Tenko Shimura anymore.

So instead...

"Does he know about Midoriya? Shigaraki, I mean." The attacks on U.A. were on their class in general rather than concentrated on him, which indicated that he probably didn't. But it couldn't hurt to make sure.

It was Gran Torino's turn to have an uncomfortably long pause.

"I don't think Shigaraki knows, no." He grimaced. "But All for One does."

Shit.

"So... how long has _he_ known?"

"He made the guess during the Kamino incident. But it was long after Shigaraki was out of the area. And he was arrested right after. So Shigaraki shouldn't have any idea yet." Yet. He sent her a pointed look. Everyone had managed to keep it a secret for this long. If it got out _now_ it probably _would_ be because of her.

She couldn't blame him for thinking that.

"Does Midoriya know he knows?"

"Only if All Might told him, so probably not." She knew Gran Torino didn't mean to sound scathing, but _ouch_.

"So if All for One is in prison and he's the only one who's figured it out, that means Midoriya's safe for now, right?"

"It should. Though that depends on whether or not he keeps sticking his nose where it doesn't belong."

Which probably meant 'no' since sitting on the sidelines doing nothing was _not_ how Midoriya rolled.

So then...

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

She knew he said to support Midoriya when he needed it. And that was something she could do (and would if she needed to). But her role wasn't automatically gonna be that of the trusted friend Midoriya willingly shared his secret with. And unlike Detective Tsukauchi and Gran Torino, she didn't have any way of otherwise helping on her own time. If Gran Torino had an idea, she'd be all for it.

Gran Torino shifted slightly.

"Part of why I'm telling you all this is in case All For One _does_ get out before you graduate. The second that happens Midoriya's gonna have a bigger target on his back than he does now."

He continued. "You want a job? If All Might hasn't told him that by then, you'll have to. I don't care _how_ fast the kid learns. There's no way he'll be able to survive a concentrated villain onslaught unprepared if he's still in _high school_."

Concern. Frustration. Tied hands. Exasperation. The thin layer of harshness in his voice would be audible to someone at even a normal level of hearing, even if the nuances weren't clear.

And Jirou agreed with its implication.

"Alright I will, but-" There was probably a reason he hadn't done it himself, but- "Shouldn't we let him know _now_ then? So he can prepare just in case?"

"I may have given him his field training, but All Might's his mentor. So it's his call what to tell the kid and when, even if I don't agree with it."

He continued, crossing his arms. "Not to mention it wouldn't do him any good right now unless All for One decides to break out of prison tomorrow. You know the kid. He's finally started to _not_ break his arms at every turn. Last thing he needs is to think he has to again for a scenario that's not even likely to happen."

"So... what _doesn't_ Midoriya know, then?" All for One knowing he was the successor was the obvious answer, but she probably shouldn't start blurting out things Midoriya didn't know right after explaining that his secret was safe with her.

"It'd make more sense to ask what he _does_ know." Which was not much, apparently. "But I don't see him much for obvious reasons, so I dunno how much All Might's told him. Just have 'im tell you what he knows when you tell him you know about One for All and go off that."

Simple-enough.

"Alright."

He looked unconvinced.

"Look, I can't stop you if you really want to, but use your best judgment. You can't take it back once the cat's out of the bag."

He didn't need to say that. Jirou knew more than most just what the consequences of telling people the wrong things at the wrong time were.

"I'll keep it on the down low for now, don't worry. I just gotta tell him I know about his quirk and the line of succession thing, but I'll hold off on everything else until the prison break unless he tells me about it first."

It was weird thinking of it as an inevitability. Because again: Tartarus. But she wasn't going to dismiss the possibility. At best, All for One would die in prison. At worst, he was just biding his time waiting for the right moment to go on another rampage. And Jirou knew which scenario would be best to prepare for.

"Good." Gran Torino sounded a bit relieved, and a touch disappointed; but didn't let it change the stern look on his face.

Another pause between them.

So they'd gone over the quirk itself.

The line of succession.

Supporting the successor.

Midoriya, the successor.

Shigaraki, the _villain_ successor.

All for One, the reason behind this whole mess in the first place.

All Might-

…

She never did get an answer, did she.

…

Well, seeing as how pretty much everything _else_ did, and seeing as how she didn't really have anything _else_ to ask...

She grimaced.

"Um... Would it be alright if I asked one more question?"

Gran Torino's eyes narrowed.

"Something tells me I'm not gonna like it, but shoot."

Based on how he dodged giving details before, probably not.

It had an obvious answer too.

And the only reason she _wasn't_ going with that obvious answer was the few bits that didn't make sense.

And sure, she _knew_ she was nowhere near qualified to actually do it herself seeing as she was _only 16_ and _nowhere near as strong as a pro hero_. And she wasn't a doctor. And really, she didn't have _any_ skill set that she could use otherwise.

But how would she know for _sure_ without asking?

She clenched her fists at her knees.

And pushed back the ache beginning to form in her face.

And swallowed.

"Is... there any way we can _save_ All Might-sensei?"

...

A pause.

"From what?"

Playing dumb. Hoping she'd drop it.

She wasn't going to.

"From whatever's going to kill him."

All Might was dying. Anyone would guess natural causes. But it wasn't going to be that alone. It couldn't be.

"No one's gonna live forever, kid – not even the Symbol of Peace. The sooner you accept that, the better."

Deflecting. Stating the obvious. Implying inevitability without giving a reason. Avoiding _saying_ that exact reason.

But he didn't end the conversation right then and there.

And she would keep going until he did.

"I know, but-" It would be easier if it _was_ just his health, but- "You said it wasn't going to be because of his injuries."

"I _said_ it wasn't that simple."

And those kinds of roundabout answers weren't going to convince her.

"The only health issues All Might-sensei has are _related_ to his injuries. Recovery Girl would have mentioned them otherwise."

"...What's your point?"

That something was off. That there was something missing. That natural causes were out of the question, but nothing else she was aware of could be that much of a ticking timebomb.

Which meant it had to be something else.

The question was _what_.

"My _point_ is that if it were, you'd have _said_ so." She caught herself before she began to yell, forcing here voice back to a more even tone. "But you didn't. Why?"

A pause.

Gran Torino laced his fingers together.

Then set his elbows on his knees.

Then hunched over.

And rested his chin on his hands.

His eyes fixed on the table.

"Tell me, kid: Do you believe you can change the future?"

...

Her eyebrows furrowed.

Wasn't something that people – usually heroes – said was that the 'the future is in your hands'? It sounded mindlessly optimistic more often than not, but there was a kernel of truth to it – _especially_ for heroes: It was their duty to save as many people as possible during crises. People needed all the help they could get when in danger. One more person stepping be could be the difference between life and death. Wasn't that just common sense?

So then why did that question sound rhetorical?

Her gut said to take the hint and drop it.

Her gut was what got her here in the first place.

Her gut would have to deal with it.

She gave the most obvious response she could think of:

"Well, can't we?"

Even as a question on it's own, that was the answer, right?

But Gran Torino took a deep breath.

Then exhaled. A small, airy noise hissed out of his shoes.

"Even if it's been preordained?"

Why would it be?

Why was he already making it sound like a lost cause?

"Where are you going with this?"

He didn't look up.

"Sir Nighteye's quirk let 'im see how it's gonna happen, and he's never been wrong."

If Sir Nighteye could see the future...

And if Sir Nighteye was never wrong...

...

Gran Torino continued:

"If you what's going to happen, and that nothing you do can change it, do you _really_ want to live with that knowledge?"

…

No.

She didn't.

Old age was one thing. She could deal with All Might dying because of that. Heck, she could even deal with him succumbing to years upon years of compounded injuries that never fully healed. It would hurt, but those were peaceful, natural causes. Anyone could take solace in that kind of inevitability. Eventually.

But _this_...

She'd already confirmed it wasn't going to be because of his health. Gran Torino would've said it by now if it were. Jirou wasn't a medic and as far as she knew, All Might would've already been healed by now if there were some quirk user capable of doing that. It wouldn't make sense to treat that kind of situation so gravely. It would be depressing, but not any cause for alarm. It was... well... just _life_.

There was also the possibility of an accident. Or some kind of natural disaster. Things that were seemingly random, but could really happen to anyone. It... really didn't fit to think of All Might as a random casualty in that kind of incident. And again, it wouldn't make sense for Gran Torino to keep indirectly asking her if she was really okay with knowing what was going to happen if that were the case.

There was an ache in Gran Torino's voice when he asked that question. That alone should've been enough to make her take the hint and change the subject to something less bleak. But all it did was give her the urge to come up with every worst-case scenario she could. Because if it wasn't going to be random and it wasn't going to be due to natural causes, it was going to be planned. Which was bad.

Very _very_ bad.

And clearly something way beyond the level anyone but the strongest heroes.

Which Jirou clearly wasn't one of.

…

There probably wasn't anything she could do.

She was in high school.

She wasn't even near the top of her _class_.

Of _course_ it would make sense that there wouldn't be.

But if there _was_...

And she chose _not_ to...

...

She swallowed.

Her mouth was dry.

She picked her mug up off the table and took a sip of what was left.

It wasn't a good idea. She _knew_ it wasn't a good idea.

But...

"If I _don't_ know, I can't even _try_."

A pause.

Another sigh.

Gran Torino looked at her with tired eyes.

Another few seconds passed.

He grimaced.

And said:

"Okay, kid. But don't say I didn't warn you."

She nodded, and leaned forward.

He nodded in turn, and continued.

"The easiest way to put it is that a villain's going to kill All Might sometime this year or next."

Ah.

Death by villain.

That... made sense. All Might didn't have his quirk anymore, so he wouldn't be able to fight at the level he used to. His body had to be strong-enough to use that power in the first place, but he wasn't the force of nature able to move kilometers in mere seconds or punch hard-enough to change the weather anymore. It stood to reason that he wouldn't be able to take everyone he used to. Which meant he wasn't essentially invincible anymore. Which meant there were fights he _could_ lose now.

But he was retired, which meant he wasn't going to be hunting down villains like he used to. And he lived on campus with all the other teachers. And he never seemed to leave on his own (though it wasn't like she could follow him that far with sound alone). So the hardest part for any villain would probably be getting to him in the first place. All Might had a number of enemies, but almost all of them were in prison now. And any that weren't shouldn't be strong-enough to breech U.A.'s security (which included a number of _active_ pro heroes).

But even then, who would be strong-enough to-

...

God _dammit_.

There was only one villain she could think of off the top of her head that would be able to do that. And that villain _wasn't_ going to be in prison forever.

"It's going to be All for One, isn't it."

Gran Torino shook his head. Thank _god_.

"All I can tell you is that it _won't_ be All for One, because otherwise we'd have known he was still alive in the first place."

Which was... good...?

All for One could only be defeated by All Might back at Kamino, but he was the only villain like that, right? That meant whatever villain it was could at least be defeated by other heroes. Which would hopefully make it mostly a matter of just _finding_ that villain in time.

"Is there anything else? Like place? Time of day? Description of the villain?" Really, wouldn't it be enough just to get a location and make sure All Might _**NEVER EVER**_ goes there until like three years from now? Or maybe keep an eye on all villains that fit the physical description? Or make sure he has an escort during those weather conditions? Heck, why not use the national quirk database to narrow down potential suspects if they had an idea on how it was gonna happen?

"S'far as I know, Sir was never able to pinpoint anything but the timeframe. And even when he's had that kinda info in the past, he still never managed to change the outcome of what he saw."

"But he saw _something_ , right?"

Something? Anything? That's how Sir Nighteye knew, right? Jirou didn't know exactly how that quirk worked, but wasn't there _something_ he could go off of? Couldn't he 'trace' All Might's steps back to a point where he was in a recognizable area? See who he was around? See what they talked about?

Gran Torino shifted uncomfortably, but continued to look straight ahead.

"I didn't go pressin' for the gritty details."

 _ **What the hell?**_

"But why _not_?" Jirou's hands slammed the table. She didn't bother trying to reign in her volume. "You've known for _years_ , haven't you? Isn't there _something_ you could've done by now?"

Gran Torino didn't even flinch. Jirou went on.

"All Might is going to _die_. We only have until next year at _most_. Why isn't _anyone_ doing _anything_ to _**change**_ that?!-"

"You think we haven't _tried_?"

Her mouth snapped shut.

She didn't know how to respond to that. Her body went rigid. Not even from some kind of quirk. Just the ice in that one sentence.

She screwed up. Gran Torino clearly hadn't been sure whether or not to tell her, but he did anyway. And the first thing she did was snap at him for it like some kind of idiot. Which was probably the dumbest thing she could've done outside of outright attacking him.

So what was she supposed to do now?

Apologize?

Beg for forgiveness?

Run?

...

Gran Torino took a deep breath.

Then continued, voice back to it's normal tone.

"Look, I wanna stop it as much as you do. But if we _can't_ , it makes more sense to mitigate the fallout instead." His eyes flickered to the paper stack. "Crime's already been goin' up since All Might retired. What do you think's gonna happen when word gets out a _villain_ got him?"

Which was... a logical way to look at it.

Even though All Might was retired, he was still known as the former Symbol of Peace. A number of people still thought he would come back some day to continue his hero work. None of them knew he no longer had the quirk that made him so strong. None of them knew what Jirou did now. All Might losing to some villain – potentially in an incident as destructive as Kamino – would take most people by surprise, to put it lightly.

Jirou didn't even want to think about what would happen after.

"But... Is there really no way around it?"

She'd never put too much thought into how much of her own fate she controlled, but she'd always assumed it was something she could if she knew what was supposed to happen. And as far as she was concerned, knowing things ahead of time could cause some kind of butterfly effect and change the outcome even if she _tried_ to make everything turn out exactly as predicted.

But if Sir Nighteye's quirk really _was_ never wrong, then that meant there was nothing anyone _could_ do.

…

Was it really that hopeless?

"If you change the future, or the kid does, or even _All Might_ does, it'll be something no one else has _ever_ managed to do before."

She looked down at the table. He continued.

"I won't say it's impossible, but be realistic." His fingers clenched closer together. His gloves made a small noise as they rubbed against one another. "If you can pull it off, great. But don't expect whatever plan you come up with to work out just because you put in the effort. It'll only hurt that much more if you do."

Then what was she _supposed_ to do?

Of _course_ it wouldn't be as easy as coming up with a plan, doing some training, and hoping for the best. She was a _kid_. And on _top_ of that, she didn't have any resources or potential leads beyond Lurkers and whatever other publicly available sites she came across. There really wasn't anything she could do that, say, Gran Torino or any other hero couldn't (aside from super hearing, which wasn't going to be of much use at the moment since there was only so much she could listen in on at U.A). And she couldn't leave campus without having a reason (and 'I wanna go home for the weekend' would only work so many times, if even once more).

She obviously couldn't follow All Might 24/7 like some kind of bodyguard. She obviously couldn't recruit heroes, teachers, or classmates to become some kind of 'All Might defense force'. That was a simple-enough idea that Gran Torino or All Might had probably considered it. And then ditched it because of all the ways it couldn't possibly work.

There wasn't anything she could think to do.

But she couldn't just let him _die_.

Just... _Ugh_...

"Kid, you feelin' alright?"

No. She really wasn't.

How _could_ she be?

 _None_ of this was okay.

All Might was going to die if he didn't get some kind of miracle.

Sir Nighteye predicting such all but made that a set-in-stone fact.

Gran Torino, one of the closest people to this, didn't think there was any chance of stopping it.

If they couldn't do anything about it, why would _she_ be any different?

But she couldn't freak out.

That wouldn't solve anything.

.

Deep breath.

.

Reel it in.

.

Calm down.

.

Freaking out wasn't going to solve anything.

.

She went a more reasonable volume, and rubbed the back of her head apologetically.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry for getting carried away."

She didn't know what anyone else had been doing about Sir Nighteye's prophecy. She didn't know how many people knew at all. Even with all this new information, she knew it was only the tip of the iceberg.

It wasn't fair to snap at Gran Torino. He gave her a quick rundown on pretty much everything she needed to know; and even though he obviously hadn't planned on telling her the worst parts, he went through with it anyway instead of kicking her out or making up insultingly blatant lies. And that was a good thing, right? For all Jirou knew, he was the _only_ person that was willing to do that. What _idiot_ would throw that kind of goodwill back in someone's face?

So what should she do, then? Change the subject and ask about something else?

She hadn't even been there an hour, but she'd already learned so much her head was spinning.

All for One was going to break out of Tartarus.

Midoriya had to defeat All for One.

And that was bad enough without adding the fact that All Might only had a year and a half left to live _at most_. And that even the pro heroes seemed to have given up on changing it.

Jirou was not a pro hero. Jirou was not a master strategist. Jirou was not a prodigy in any way, shape, or form and she _definitely_ didn't have accesses to the kinds of resources that could guarantee she'd accomplish something everyone apparently no one else had ever managed to before. She was as close to a normal high school student someone in U.A.'s hero course could be.

That aside, she had to to think:

 _Was_ there anything she still needed to ask?

 _Was_ there anything she still needed to know?

This trip had been nothing but revelation after revelation. She had her questions go down rabbit holes she neither expected nor wanted to know about. There was so much information swimming in her head that she wasn't sure she'd even be able to remember all the the _important_ stuff. And Gran Torino had already made it clear that he only expected her to support Midoriya when the time came. So there wasn't any point in trying to come up with a plan right now. And god forbid she start trying to make _small talk_.

So... the next course of action was fairly obvious:

"Well... Actually... I think that's just about everything I wanted to ask. So I think I should be going now. Thank you for answering my questions. I really appreciate it."

She didn't have to leave just yet. There was plenty of time left before she had to meet her friend. And a little niggling at the back of her mind said she hadn't gotten everything she could yet.

But a bigger part said she needed to leave. Now.

This was a safe place. She was with a pro hero. There weren't any villains around. There wasn't any danger and she didn't _feel_ like she was in any danger.

But discomfort lurched through her chest.

And staying wasn't going to make it go away.

...Yeah, that would be the best thing to do for now.

Gran Torino nodded.

"Yer' welcome." He hopped off his couch. "And by the way, you should tell All Might what you know when you get the chance too."

Yeah. She needed to tell Midoriya. After that, All Might would be the next logical person to explain herself to. Hopefully he wouldn't be mad that she not only broke her promise, but also rode a train into _a whole nother prefecture_ in order to get the answers she knew he wouldn't give himself.

Though it'd probably be best to hold off on certain parts until they were needed.

Man, she _really_ wondered how she was going to explain that, though. Whether to All Might _or_ Midoriya. Honestly, if someone from the future gave _her_ a blow-by-blow account of everything that just happened within the last hour, she wouldn't believe them. Well- they _could_ always call Gran Torino to clarify, but it wouldn't make the situation any less weird.

Though she could conveniently forget to mention Gran Torino for now. It wasn't like they needed to know about her blatantly breaking school rules just a few weeks after everyone moved into the dorms so they _wouldn't_ get into situations that could turn deadly if they weren't careful.

"Okay. I will.

Oh and before she could forget:

"Oh yeah- um... Could you not tell anyone about me coming here or what we talked about?" She twiddled her lobes together. "No one knows I'm in Yamanashi."

Gran Torino had a laugh at that. A good portion of the heavy atmosphere permeating the room dropped instantly.

"Seriously, kid? You either got guts or no brain." He reached over and picked up the taiyaki plate. "You're lucky I didn't turn out to be some sorta whackjob."

And he was right about that. Jirou had spent the whole trip covering her tracks to get there, and she didn't see any surveillance cameras when she came down the street leading to this building.

If she'd been wrong and wound up at a villain's house, she would've been screwed.

Gran Torino continued.

"That being said, I'm not gonna go around tellin' people how some high schooler just came to my door askin' about things she shouldn't know even exist." He unceremoniously tossed the plate in the sink. It made a clattering sound as it hit the other tableware inside. "But I'm not gonna lie if they come askin' about _you_."

Fair enough.

"I understand. Thanks again." Jirou nodded and pushed herself up off the couch then grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder. "Anyway, I'll be heading out now. It was nice meeting you, Gran Torino."

"Alright. See you 'round."

Jirou headed to the front entrance. Gran Torino moved to where she had just been sitting. He began to spread the papers inside that manila envelope across the table.

So that was the end of their conversation. Gran Torino had work to do. Jirou had an appointment to keep. There was no reason to stay any longer. Only thing to do now was go.

But right as she grabbed the door handle...

"And kid?"

She froze, and turned back just-enough to see Gran Torino in her peripheral vision.

"Yeah?"

He didn't make any effort to look at her, despite being the one to say more. He just grimaced.

"Don't let it get to you, okay?" His voice was softer. Gentler. "We've got time before things go South. Enjoy the peace while it lasts."

She gulped, but kept her voice even as possible.

"Alright. I will."

A few moments went by. Gran Torino didn't say anything else. Jirou pulled the door open, then stepped out and shut it behind her.

…

...

 _Phew._

Walking out that door and past those blockades was almost like stepping into another world. One with a clear sky, blinding sunlight, and nothing related to supervillains that could potentially murder everyone she knew and cared about.

A few people walked along the sidewalk. Their footsteps reverberated between the buildings. A car rolled by. The driver had on some sugary pop song that recently made it into the Oricon Singles Chart. No one seemed to notice the high school girl coming out of the sketchy building. No heavy atmosphere permeated the surrounding air. Everything was completely normal. Nothing out of the ordinary except maybe her if anyone was paying attention.

Without skipping a beat, she took to the sidewalk. She grabbed her phone and typed in a new address – one for the Kofu Showa Aeon Mall. It was gonna be a bit of a hike to get to the bus stop, but she had time to kill and it would do her some good to clear her head. And she'd probably make it to the bus in time. If not, the next one would arrive in half an hour. No biggie either way. Everything was gonna be fine.

After all, it wasn't like some crazed mass murderer was going to break out of prison and start slaughtering next week.

And it wasn't like Shigaraki and the Villain Alliance were gonna try and attack U.A. again for the umpteenth time tomorrow.

And it wasn't like All Might and Midoriya were going to be vulnerable and alone with no support of their own today.

And it wasn't like All Might was going to face his apparently inevitable demise within the next few hours.

And it wasn't like there was anything Jirou could do to prepare the future right this second anyway.

…

Huh.

…

Her lungs felt heavy.

…

She took a deep breath.

…

Pressure formed above her throat.

...

Her vision blurred.

…

An itch prickled in her eyes.

...

She blinked and rubbed it out.

...

Then looked down at her hands.

...

Sunlight bounced off the wetness left behind.

.

* * *

The two of them agreed to meet at the Mister Donut at the mall's west sakura entrance.

The signage made it easy enough to find from the east hotaru entrance. But even without it, the mall's layout wasn't very hard to navigate. Beyond a quick trip to the bathroom to make sure she still looked alright, she didn't make any pit stops on the way to her destination.

It only took a few minutes to get there, grab a coffee and donut, and find a seat that gave her a clear view of either shop entrance. And the only thing she had to do in the meantime was mess around on her phone. But she made a point to not look up anything related to the conversation she had not too long ago. The _last_ thing she needed was to get wrapped up in researching crimes and conspiracy theories when she was supposed to be having _fun_.

She tapped a jack to to the table.

Her parents didn't have any GPS tracking on her phone, but she guessed if anyone was gonna track her down, that would be how. She'd considered leaving it back in her dorm for a time to make herself as untraceable as she could possibly get, but smacked that idea down quick. Putting aside the fact that she'd have to then buy maps for all the areas she'd be going to, she wouldn't be able to call anyone for help if she _did_ get into trouble. And the last thing anyone needed was for her to go missing, U.A. student or not.

Maybe she should invest in a faraday bag. Then no one could track her with her phone since no signal could get in _or_ out. And she could still get to it if she really needed to. But those things had to be ordered online. All packages to U.A. were screened; so whether it got shipped there or to here parents' house, she'd get questioned on why she would ever need one of those things. Nothing in her hero costume would warrant one, so she couldn't ask for one from the support department (and it wasn't like she could just swipe costume stuff for daily use as she pleased). Maybe Yaoyorozu could make one; but if she told anyone else about it, it would raise _way_ more questions than she was comfortable with.

Not to mention she wouldn't be able to get any texts while her phone was inside, which could make people think she was in some kind of danger if they tried to contact her at the wrong time. Which would be even _worse_ than just letting the government track her like they did everyone else or whatever.

Why was she even thinking about this? She probably wasn't going to go off campus alone again anytime before the holidays.

Sigh.

She opened the online floor guides for the Kofu Showa and Hamamatsu Shitoro Aeon Malls in two separate tabs. She was at the former, and the latter was the closest one to where she lived. Might as well compare them to keep her story straight. And see if there was anything interesting she hadn't gone to in awhile.

In the end, she was just using her friend as an alibi; but not even trying to hide it would be a real dick move. As far as anyone else knew she was just Kyouka Jirou: Regular high schooler out hanging with an absolutely ordinary friend on a completely uneventful Sunday afternoon. Nothing weird about her. Nothing weird about her plans. Absolutely no suspicious activity going on at all no sirree.

...

She hadn't expected to be fed taiyaki of all things. And now she had the crumbly remnants of a donut and a cup of coffee that was probably half sugar at this point. Probably should've considered that before getting what she normally did. She liked sweets as much as the next guy, but even this was a bit much. Plaque-y fuzz was already forming on her teeth. Blech.

She looked down at her phone. Ten more minutes until the time they were set to meet. So ten minutes until her friend would arrive. So ten minutes until she couldn't keep stewing even if she wanted to.

" _Kyoukaaaaa!"_

Or not.

Well, there she was. Coming right at her. No mistaking those rabbit ears and long white hair anywhere, though the hair clips were new. Jirou slapped on a beaming smile to greet her, and shoved her phone back in her bag.

"Hey Usa!"

Usa Yokugami. Quirk: Ear wings. She could expand and flap her ears to fly short distances. She was Jirou's classmate for their second and third year of middle school. Now she was going to Kofu Daiichi High School. She and Jirou were part of a fairly large friend group that made up a good portion of the girls in their year. And while they weren't particularly close themselves, pretty much everyone in it was on a first name basis with one another. So it wasn't _that_ weird that they'd hang out together.

But dang. High school hit her with the puberty stick, that's for sure. And the blouse+skirt combo contrasted with Jirou's top and shorts. Not like it mattered, but it did make her feel a little underdressed.

Though Usa didn't seem to notice. Instead she began to fret.

"Oh my gosh! I thought I was gonna be the first one here. You weren't waiting too long, were you?"

Jirou chuckled and waved it off.

"Nah. I just got here a couple minutes ago, myself."

Which was a lie, obviously, but Usa didn't have to know that. Though that was assuming she didn't immediately realize that as soon as she saw the coffee.

And it seemed she didn't, thankfully.

"So how come you came all the way out here, anyway? Is U.A. doing something here?" Usa scanned the area around them, probably looking for anyone else from her class.

Ha. If only.

"Nah, it's just me." And she made damn well sure of that. "I just had to get off campus, y'know? And I figured 'hey, why _not_ come here?'"

"Oh right. You guys gotta live at school now, huh. Sounds rough." Usa nodded with understanding. No matter how much you liked your teachers and classmates, being cooped up with them 24/7 could get tiring. And thankfully she didn't think to press the issue; mostly she seemed happy to see an old friend for the first time since they graduated middle school.

"Yeah. But I don't have to commute anymore, so that's good." And a 5 minute walk beat an hour commuting both ways any day of the week.

"Yeah I know _that_ feeling. Moving here was the best thing I could've done!"

Mr. and Mrs. Yokugami were pretty overprotective, if Jirou remembered right. Not so much that Usa snapped or rebelled or anything, but enough that her newfound freedom took a load off her. Even in those first few minutes, anyone who knew her would be able to see how much more relaxed she was. Even though she was going to one of the best schools in the prefecture and entirely responsible for her own well-being now.

Jirou was gonna wait until the subject came up before even alluding to it, though. It probably wasn't a sore spot, but it wouldn't hurt to be careful.

"So how long's it take you to get to school?"

"Not even 20 minutes by bike! I don't need to take a train _or_ a bus!" And considering how long commutes could get for some people, it's no wonder she was so happy.

"Nice! So you got your own apartment, right?" She knew the answer, but it was as good a lead-in as any.

"Yes I do! It's wonderful!" And she seemed pretty proud of herself for it. Good for her. And that wasn't sarcasm.

Usa changed the subject before Jirou could respond.

"Oh by the way- you're in the same class as Shouto Todoroki, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

Usa seemed to light up at that.

"Oo! Can you, like, get me an autograph?!"

Hoo boy.

"Maybe?" Jirou scratched her head. She didn't know how he'd react to being asked for one. He didn't seem like the type to revel in getting attention from fangirls. "Can't say I know him too well, though. Why, you need one?"

"Are you _kidding_? He's _so_ _ **cute**_!"

Jirou wondered how Todoroki would feel knowing he had fans already. Usa continued before she could make a remark about that.

"And his quirk is _amazing_! And he's got those dark brooding eyes like his dad, but they give him that adorable bad boy look and it's _so_ _ **hot**_! _And_ cool."

Jirou wondered how Todoroki would feel knowing he had a fans because of how much like Endeavor he was. He hadn't exactly been Captain Daddy Issues (what, with his weird choice in hero costume design and goal to use nothing but ice ever) since the sports festival, but he never had anything good to say about his father beyond the fact that he was an effective hero.

Ashido and Hagakure were the closest thing he had to fangirls in their class, though even they just remarked that he was the class pretty boy once in a while. And Jirou was well-aware that some of the kids in their class were well on their way to having fanbases of their own straight out of high school. Still, it was kinda weird to hear someone gush about a classmate in-person like this.

But regardless, Jirou chuckled at the pun; then steered the conversation in another direction without giving Usa a definite answer. Maybe she could do it if they got merch or sold pictures or something. But she wasn't sure how she would even breech the subject before they got that far.

So they talked a bit. Then Jirou grabbed her bag, got up, and downed the rest of her coffee. Then she tossed the empty cup and wrapper as they left the shop together.

* * *

The two of them spent the next few hours traversing the mall.

From Lashic to Wego to Axes Femme. From DHC to Wabi x Sabi to Minipla. The browsed the various different types of clothes and knickknacks the mall had to offer. The tried on different outfits. They checked out the new stuff they hadn't seen yet. They chatted about classes and life and the friends they'd made as freshmen at their respective schools.

Usa was doing pretty well. She'd found a solid group of friends among her class, and she'd joined the school orchestra. A few classmates were impressed that she knew someone that went to U.A., though Todoroki and Bakugou were the only two the hero geeks were keeping tabs on at the moment. Nothing too exciting ever really happened, but that was (thankfully) the norm for high schools. The juiciest gossip was that one of the seniors was dating an older guy. So nothing _that_ bad.

Jirou was doing alright too. The hero course was pretty rough, but she got her provisional license as a first-year. She usually hung out with the other girls in her class, and had gotten closer with everyone overall since they were living together now. She was also a liiiiittle farther off-campus than she should be, so any mentioning her on social media was a no-go. Usa was a bit disappointed at that last part, but was thankfully understanding about it. It just meant that they wouldn't get to post silly selfies on Twitter or check in on Facebook.

The weekend bustle reverberated along the walls no matter where they went. Moms with their kids. Couples on dates. Groups of friends. Loners doing their own thing. There would always be a few people who radiated doom and gloom no matter where she went, but none of them were actually dangerous. No villains. No fighting. Just a peaceful day of people taking care of their business without a care in the world.

It was a nice distraction. She even bought something herself: A simple striped tanktop from Lovetoxic (since she was still committed to being cash-only in this prefecture). The Hamamatsu Shitoro Aeon Mall had that store too. And since she didn't take the receipt with her, she could rest easy on that too. Because there was nothing in that bag that would say she went anywhere outside the Shizuoka prefecture today.

Usa was having a ball. She didn't get to go out like this too often – most of the girls were focused on schoolwork and clubs right now. Which made sense since it was one of the best schools in the prefecture. So she was going a mile a minute and getting it all out of her system and _loving it_. It would be hard _not_ to catch some of that giddiness.

Though the conversation _would_ lull once in awhile. Maybe Usa'd be sifting through a clothes rack. Maybe Jirou'd be looking at tags. Whatever the reason, their responses would slow a bit as something else grabbed their attention. Which was totally normal! Can't be completely focused on one person 100% for hours on end, after all. And the conversation would naturally pick back up in a matter of minutes.

And she was thankful for that.

It kept the thoughts lurking in the back of her head down to a dull roar.

* * *

Nana Shimura was murdered over thirty years ago.

Her husband too.

Neither case was ever solved.

It was almost embarrassing how quickly Jirou dove back into her research after she and Usa parted ways. The latter had plans for dinner with her parents, so they couldn't stay together the _whole_ day. Which was fine with Jirou, because she had to get back to her folks too; and it would make more sense to go home while they were still awake.

Usa had asked her if she wanted to walk to the station together. Jirou appreciated the offer, but told her she should be fine; Usa's bus was in the complete opposite direction anyway. And though she didn't say it, even as a U.A. student all by her lonesome, Jirou could probably handle herself seeing as how a) she highly doubted anyone would've followed her this far for this long without attacking her by now, b) even though she'd been on screen during the sports festival, she was still pretty much unknown as far as U.A. hero students went, c) she wasn't gonna be going anywhere sketchy, and d) she wasn't even wearing her _uniform_.

Though maybe she should've taken her up on it. Even without the danger, hanging around other people was still the most effective distraction she'd found. It didn't help that Jirou had nothing else to do while she waited for her train. She was still 'hanging out with her parents', so she wasn't going to be the first to text anyone from school. And she wasn't going to 'utilize social media' for the same reason. And it would just be rude to start bugging Usa again right after they just said goodbye. And Lurkers was moving at a snail's pace; obviously there was the usual rumors and theorizing, but the weekend itself had been pretty uneventful altogether.

Might as well start looking up random cat videos at this point.

...

The husband's obituary said he was survived by his wife and son.

But Shigaraki was _way_ too young to be her son given the dates.

So was he her grandson? Nephew? Long-lost relative twice-removed?

Something else entirely?

Did Midoriya know?

Did anyone _else_ know?

What was she even supposed to _say_? Midoriya had never met Shimura for obvious reasons. His only encounters with Shigaraki were as enemies. Jirou had no actual proof the two of them had any connection beyond surnames and putting two and two together. For all she knew, she _could_ just be seeing things that weren't even there.

…

She closed the app as her train rolled in. There weren't too many people on it, thankfully, so she was able to quickly grab a window seat.

...

Hanging out with Usa made her feel a lot better, but companionship only worked as a distraction when the person in question was actually there. Which meant she'd have to make a conscious effort to lighten her thoughts on her own. Her parents would notice if something was wrong. Jirou was able to read people really well, but her folks made that ability look like child's play. Her mom was the one who could do it with her quirk (which is where Jirou got it from). Her dad just had one of the most scarily accurate gut instincts she'd ever seen. They'd probably notice something was off regardless of what she did, but she could at least minimize it enough that they wouldn't worry _too_ much.

She put on one of her more upbeat playlists. She tapped a finger to her thigh on beat. She stuffed her head full of happy thoughts: like finally having her provisional license, getting a good grade on her last English test, and getting to check out that Aeon Mall with a friend she hadn't seen in forever.

She was all caught up with her homework, so she was free to relax as she pleased. It wasn't going to be too late when she got home, so she and her parents could hang out and have a jam session. Or maybe they could fill her in on what new plans they'd made for their next album. Or they could even just pop in a movie and relax with snacks without saying much of anything!

There was still a few hours left in the day. Her worries could go piss off in the meantime. This conspiracy wasn't going anywhere. All Might wasn't going anywhere. Midoriya was fine. _Everything_ was fine. There was pretty much no chance the Villain Alliance would make another attack before the end of the year. Maybe not even until they all graduated!

So why waste time thinking about it when she could be _happy_?

She cleared out her head and slapped a big goofy smile on her face. The buildings and trees passing by sure were interesting weren't they. Almost as interesting as all those different things she and Usa browsed in all those different shops! And all those things they talked about too! They were great! This _day_ was _**great**_!

…

…

…

Who was she kidding.

* * *

It wasn't too late when the train reached her hometown station.

She got off the train in no particular hurry. The machine ate her ticket as she passed through the gate. The Lovetoxic bag with her new shirt dangled from her fingers. The bag with all her other stuff hung from the opposite shoulder.

Her house was within walking distance. It wasn't too late for another detour, so she stopped for an espresso macchiato at the Starbucks a few blocks away. Then chugged it for some extra energy. Then tossed the evidence at the store itself. Then mentally kicked herself for pretty much dooming her sleep schedule for that night.

She was drained, but no one needed to know that. Her parents wouldn't mind (and they'd see right through her anyway), but she didn't want to give them any reason to worry _too_ much. Her emotions leveled out a while ago, but she still wasn't in the mindset of someone who just spent the whole day relaxing without a care in the world. Best to make it look like she was just tired from walking and chattering away all day with her friends.

The Donki a few blocks down from her house had some supplies she needed to get, so she swung by on the way. Not that she couldn't get them later, but it made sense to get it over with while the idea was fresh in her mind. And while she was still alone. And while she had a window of plausible deniability where there was no chance of anyone asking _why_ she needed what she did.

The sun had just about set when she got home. Some of the lights were on already. It felt like she'd just come home from school on a normal day. She let her body run on autopilot like it used to every day. Punched in the key code for the gate outside. Hear it click open. Close it behind her. See if the front door is unlocked. Go straight inside instead of fishing for her keys since it was.

She kicked off her shoes in the entryway, then looked around for a pair of slippers before remembering that was a home habit she picked up in the dorms. Socks were fine. She stepped onto the wooden floor. It creaked softly under her feet.

She glanced at her phone. It was half past 19:00.

It wouldn't be too long before Mom-

" _Honey! Kyouka's home!"_

Jirou was all but tackled by her parents in a matter of seconds.

They had a knack for getting her just hard-enough to make her feel it without knocking her over, and those first few months at U.A. hadn't made her any more immune. Jirou returned the favor. Obviously they didn't do it very often when she still lived at home, but now was enough of an event to warrant it, she guessed.

They pulled back after a few moments. Dad was the first to say something after they exchanged their normal greetings:

"All right, Kyouka. Show us that license!"

Straight and to the point. And Jirou was only too happy to oblige. She grabbed her wallet out of her bag and hung it open.

"Right here!"

"Atta girl!"

She and Dad high-fived. Mom made a comment on how fast their little girl was growing up. Dad sprung off that how it felt like only yesterday that she was a little kid with a yellow hat and randoseru afraid of walking together with the other elementary schoolers for the first time. Jirou let out an exaggerated groan, and reminded Dad that he cried twice as much as she did that day. They had some back-and-forth banter, but it was all playful teasing. Really, they were all just happy to see each other again.

The three of them moved to the living room. Mom asked if there was anything she wanted for dinner. Jirou was fine with whatever. They settled on pizza, and talked about what had been going on while she was away as they waited for the delivery guy. The new semester was pretty rough so far, but she was still getting along great with everyone. Mom and Dad were still composing and making music. They were making steady progress on their latest album. Dad lamented about them being empty nesters already. Jirou made a joke about him getting old. They all had a laugh at that.

Mom flipped on the news. Jirou took the chance to check her phone. Thankfully no one had texted her to ask why she never showed up to at Yaoyorozu's study party, which meant either Iida or Mineta (or Kaminari) had told them. Nor had anyone texted here about being in Yamanashi (not that she expected it). No one had texted her at all, which at least meant nothing had happened on campus while she was gone.

So she should take the chance and just _relax_.

* * *

A couple hours and a jam session later it was time to hit the hay. It was kinda weird how quiet taking a bath was now. She almost expected one of the other girls to start chatting next to her. Instead it was just her, herself, and a rubber ducky Dad had gotten as a souvenir overseas. Ah well. At least she had the tub all to herself.

All her stuff had been moved to U.A., which made her room look pretty barren. There was still a few instruments left, a nightstand, some posters, and her old bed was where it always was, but that was about it. Which was fine, really. She doubted that she'd be coming back again any time soon. Though there was enough stuff left behind that she'd be covered for holiday visits and the like.

Her bag was by her bed, and her phone was charging inside it. The sky was dark. The moon was shining. The house was quiet. Jirou threw on an old pair of pajamas she didn't bother to bring with her to school.

And though she should probably try and sleep (caffeine or not), she couldn't go to bed just yet.

Instead she pulled a thin notebook out of the Lovetoxic bag she'd slipped it in. The donki she stopped at before had a few, and she figured it'd be her best option. She didn't have anything on her to write in at the time besides her phone, and her phone was probably the worst store anything she _couldn't_ have anyone find out.

If she had an embarrassing secret or something and someone looked at her phone, it'd suck for sure; but it wouldn't be the end of the world. This would be. Even if it would look more like a twelve-year-old's shitty fanfic than actual facts, she couldn't risk someone that could actually put two and two together being able to read it – even if that chance was one in a million.

But though she liked to think she was decently smart in her own right, there was no _way_ she could keep all this information in her head alone forever. Even Yaoyorozu would have a tough time with it on a long-term basis. Jirou had no idea what would be happening and when. And she didn't know when or _if_ she'd ever be an active part of this conspiracy. But if she didn't want to be _completely_ blindsided, she'd have to record every last detail she could.

She fished a pencil out of her bag and opened up the notebook. She laid face-down on her bed and set the notebook in front of her.

The first page would probably have to have some kind of 'abandon hope all ye who enter'-type message. The other side too. So she flipped to the next page, and began tapping out lines of dots and dashes.

 _People who know about Midoriya's quirk:_

 _-Midoriya_

 _-All Might_

 _-Recovery Girl_

 _-Principal_

 _-Detective Tsukauchi_

 _-Gran Torino_

 _-Sir Nighteye_

 _-All for One_

 _-Bakugou(?)_

 _-Togata-senpai(?)_

 _-Midoriya's Parents(?)_

 _-Other police(?)_

 _-Shigaraki(?)_

She surrounded those words with other lines, and connected some of the dots with faint pencil marks – light-enough that she herself could still clearly see the message underneath. The result was a psychedelic-looking zombie marching to the right with some bullshit forest of fish and triangles behind it. Not the best thing she'd ever drawn by any means, but it definitely did the job of making the information look like nothing more than a doodle by an artsy teen.

And that was probably the best way to hide information in plain sight: No one in their right mind would go through a teenage girl's sketchbook expecting to find those kinds of secrets. And even if they did, they probably couldn't read Morse and wouldn't even see it unless they were specifically looking for it.

Her parents weren't the type to look through her stuff (and wouldn't be able to see it even if they were since she lived in the dorms now). And Kaminari wouldn't be able to get to it since since she wasn't planning on taking it out of her dorm (which the boys wouldn't have access to unless she specifically let them in); and she wasn't planning on telling him about it in the first place. And the three of them were the _only_ ones who could possibly find out.

Anyone else? Not a chance. Even if someone somehow came across it, they'd probably just think it was her 'secret sketchbook' or something. Which Jirou would happily play along with. Because now was _definitely_ not the time to make people start panicking.

She wrote the date under the picture in normal numbers, then turned to the next page and kept going.

 _Midoriya's quirk is called One for All. Strength quirk. Passed from person to person. The goal is to eventually defeat All for One._

 _All Might can't use One for All anymore. Used what was left in Kamino. Other quirk unknown, but probably useless. Predicted to die sometime between now and the end of next year. Predicted by Sir Nighteye. Sir Nighteye has never been wrong. Will be a villain that does it. No information on that villain yet. Only that it won't be All for One. Need more information to stop it._

And she didn't even know if she _had_ a chance of stopping it.

It was weird thinking like that. Moving on.

It was time to write about people in particular.

 _Nana Shimura: Probably All Might's predecessor. If so, previously wielded One for All. Was murdered over 30 years ago. Husband was murdered not long before. Had a son. Status of son unknown._

 _Sir Nighteye: All Might's former sidekick. Quirk lets him see the future. Has never been wrong. Contact him after telling Midoriya and All Might what I know. Get more information._

 _Gran Torino: Midoriya's field training teacher and Shimura's friend. Knows everything related to One for All. Told me All Might would die. Did not tell me about the potential connection between Shigaraki and Shimura. Address: 400-XXXX Yamanashi-ken, Darlo-ku, Dagobah-chou 8 Choume, 9-6. Phone number 055-XXX-5249_

 _Tomura Shigaraki: Bad guy. All for One's Successor. Likely leading the Villain Alliance now. Potential relative of Nana Shimura. Relationship unknown. Real name: Tenko Shimura_

She wrote down the kanji in Shimura and Shigaraki's names in different areas of the page, then drew a few lines to connect so she knew which went with which. When she was done, she went back to tap out one more line.

 _All for One: Immortal. The guy All Might beat in Kamino. Knows Midoriya is the successor. Will likely escape Tartarus after All Might dies. Midoriya has to defeat him when that happens._

And she'd have to do what she could to help him when that happened.

They'd _all_ have to help him when that happened.

She just hoped they wouldn't still be freshmen at that point.

…

She drew over the text again before she could get distracted by her own thoughts again. The picture this time was a bazaar. The kanji were on the signs of various stalls. The dots and dashes were on everything else. It was a little harder to make out the words, but she'd manage. And she could always redraw it if she really had to.

She wrote the date at the bottom of that page too. Knowing when she recorded the info could be useful if she wanted to reference it.

Actually...

She tapped out another few sentences at the bottom of that page, hidden within the cobblestones:

 _Midoriya doesn't know I know at all yet. Only Gran Torino does. I have to tell him and All Might I know as soon as possible. But I can't tell him All for One knows he's the successor just yet or anything else he doesn't already know. It's All Might's job to do that._

After she told Midoriya, she'd need to keep a tally on who else would know she knew. Obviously there was no one in class but Midoriya (and possibly Bakugou) who knew about One for All and the whole successor thing, but there was a chance that some school staff were in on it now too (besides Recovery Girl and the Principal, of course).

She closed the notebook, slipped it inside the shirt she bought, and stuffed both in her bag.

Then let her face fall onto her pillow with a ' _fwump_ '.

And groaned.

aaaaaaaa

...

Maybe if she had an actual deadline she could make a real plan.

Was there any way to gauge how strong All Might still was? Even without his strength quirk, it stood to reason that he could still probably take out most everyone at U.A. with a couple hits. He didn't break his arms like Midoriya, so that meant his body had to be strong-enough to handle the One for All at it's full power, right? But how long would that last now that he was retired? How much more would his old injuries eat away at him? What would he have a tough time facing now? What would he have a tough time facing in a _year_? How strong would a villain have to be to actually _kill_ him?

Would he be alone? Would there be heroes too weak to stop it? Would it happen too quickly for anyone to react?

The only thing she could really guess is that this villain wouldn't be as strong as All for One. And as far as she knew, there weren't any others as strong as Endeavor. Which meant that villain could be defeated with the right set of heroes.

Jirou knew she herself wouldn't be anywhere near as strong as All Might next year unless his health _really_ took a turn for the worst, but there _were_ ways to cut corners when trying to get stronger.

Focusing on nothing what you're good at would improve those specific areas way faster.

Jirou was good with her jacks and shockwaves.

She could really do some damage in the future if her potential was anything like Present Mic's.

But becoming an expert at those so quickly would mean she'd suck at everything else. She'd just be a glass cannon.

Which would be worse than just going at a normal pace if she couldn't help All Might _and_ All for One broke out some time after she graduated. Because she'd still be useless at CQC and would only be able to take a couple hits before going down.

And she didn't want anyone else dying just because they had to save _her_.

...

There was a knock on the door.

" _Kyouka?"_

The voice was unmistakably her mom's.

Huh. Usually she'd be downstairs practicing or jotting down ideas or something about now.

"Yeah?"

" _Can I come in?"_

"Sure. You're fine." She didn't have anything out in the open. She sat up and swung her legs off the bed.

The door creaked open. Mom stepped inside. She smiled softly.

"Hi, Honey."

Jirou did the same.

"Hey Mom." She tilted her head a little. "What's up?"

"Got everything squared away?"

"Yep."

Mom looked her over for a second.

"Is everything alright at school?"

Dammit, Mom.

There was enough sound insulation in the bedrooms that they couldn't hear each other through the walls without the other side making a _real_ effort. Her parents made sure of that. Which meant there was no way that Mom was able to hear what she did in her notebook. Which meant that the concern in her voice must have been caused by something Jirou did earlier.

She thought she stayed perfectly in-character for the past few hours. She even managed to keep her mind off the conspiracy (for the most part). Like sure, she was tired; but she hadn't stewed at all. She swatted those thoughts away every time they bubbled up. Whether by talking or thinking up guitar riffs or focusing just a little too hard on the TV when something interesting popped up.

She should've known Mom would hear the subconscious cues regardless.

But she waved her hand and nodded.

"Oh yeah, everything's fine."

"You don't sound fine."

Oh _come on_.

It wasn't that she didn't trust her parents – Jirou could trust them more with a secret than _anyone_. But it wouldn't be fair to tell them where else she went today. How she went to a stranger's house in secret and lied to everyone about it. How she was in an entirely different prefecture from where she said she'd be. How she learned things about the Symbol of Peace that only a select few were supposed to know.

Putting aside the fact that she would have to unload everything on them all at once for them to have even an _clue_ of what she was talking about, there was nothing _they_ could do about it either. Okay so the guy All Might beat in Kamino's breaking out. Okay so he's so strong he swatted away _Endeavor_ like he was _nothing_. Okay, so All Might himself isn't even going to live long-enough to _see that happen_. Gee, how could that _possibly_ make things go to shit and ruin the livelyhoods of people they cared about?

Mom and Dad already had a suitcase each with the bare essentials for when they needed to travel in a hurry. It was never anything so sudden they _had_ to have it ahead of time, but the prep always made things easier. And if Jirou kept her mouth shut and played her cards right, they never would need them for real. Because loved ones were always a potential target when you pissed off the wrong people. And said wrong people were ones she hopefully would never have to face.

She took a deep breath, and unclenched her fist. How long had it been like that, anyway?

"It's just... A friend of mine is going through some rough times right now. I wish I could help them."

Keep it truthful. Keep it vague. Mom didn't use her quirk for combat, but when it came to reading emotions she blew Jirou out of the water. And Jirou knew she herself would be giving off bad vibes as it was. She'd have to be careful if she was gonna make sure Mom wouldn't be hinted the _actual_ gravity of the situation. Good thing she was a teenager with hormones she could blame all the weirdness on.

"Have you tried talking with them about it?"

Hah. She wished.

"Not yet." But she remembered what Gran Torino said. Sooner was better than later. She should just get it over with.

"Would _you_ like to talk about it?" Mom asked. _'With me'_ sat at the end of her tongue.

"Nah. It's not something I should even know." And it _definitely_ wasn't something she should be talking about with anyone not already in the loop. "And it's nothing I can do anything about at the moment, anyway."

She already knew that her mom would be able to tell something was wrong. She was just glad her mom was hand-off-enough that she wasn't gonna try and meddle. There was no immediate danger, after all. All Might was still on the U.A. campus. And even teachers often used the buddy system now when they left. The Villain Alliance weren't dumb-enough to attack the school directly (yet).

"I understand." Though there was still concern in her voice. But nothing about it or anything else suggested she heard what Jirou just tapped out, or that she had sensed just _how_ bad things were. "But you can tell me if you feel overwhelmed. I'll always be here."

"I know." And she appreciated it. "Thanks, Mom."

"You're welcome. Good night, sweetie."

"Good night, Mom."

Mom shut the door. Jirou was left alone.

She sighed.

She should go to sleep.

She had school tomorrow.

But she was still in the tail end of her caffeine buzz.

So it would be a while before she'd be able to nod off.

But what was there to even do in the meantime?

Mom and Dad were going to bed too. And even with the sound damping, Mom would be able to hear her if she went downstairs.

She looked at her bag. Then grabbed her phone out of it.

No new messages. That was fine. Everyone else was getting ready to snooze too. Probably.

She suppressed the urge to go back to hunting for information. As far as she knew, she had found everything related to this that was publicly available. Maybe if she could think of something she would, but for now it was just a matter of just... waiting. Because it wasn't like there was some villain registry high school students could access on a whim at god-knows-when in the morning when they had nothing better to do.

...

There was watching Youtube videos, but doing that this late would probably keep her up the rest of the night.

So music it was.

She plugged in her jacks and scrolled through her music choices, eventually deciding on Sejd's first album. Hopefully that would be long enough.

One deep breath. Then two.

Clear mind.

No thoughts.

Just sleep.

She squeezed her eyes shut.

* * *

It had only been a few weeks since she'd moved into the dorms, but it was weird how unfamiliar her room at home had become.

She woke up expecting the ambient sounds of 19 other kids her age. Instead she got nothing but the faintest traces of two adults. Even though Mom and Dad slept in the room next to her, she could never hear them. Thankfully they took the extra soundproofing precaution when it came to the bedrooms when they first bought the house.

Roll out of bed. Get up. Get dressed. Throw pajamas in the hamper. Go downstairs. Get breakfast. Her morning routine hadn't really changed since she got to U.A.. The only major difference was that she had her own hamper at school. And that she had some extra time to sleep in. And no train commute. Really, beyond having to do her own chores now, she was living the high school dream.

Dad was already up, like usual. He grinned and raised his mug with a "Mornin', sunshine." as she entered the kitchen. Then went back to reading the news on his tablet. Mom was more of a night owl (which Jirou took after), so she usually slept in a bit.

Jirou grabbed a bowl and a pair of chopsticks and spooned some rice out of the cooker, then cracked an egg over it. Dad grabbed her a cup of coffee as she stirred her breakfast up. They both took their coffee the same, which hadn't changed since she moved into the dorms. The commute was why she started drinking it in the first place. Now it was just a force of habit.

She mentioned that she'd be leaving a little early so she could stop by the dorm before class, but otherwise didn't say much. Dad didn't try and start any conversation either, though he did glance at her once in awhile. They both talked up a storm last night. Nothing wrong with just enjoying the morning peace in silence. That tranquility was one of the few things she couldn't get during daily U.A. life. She'd be lying if she said she didn't miss it.

Mom came down to see her off just as she was about to leave. Jirou got a big hug from both her and Dad, and then headed out the door waving goodbye.

She normally would've taken the train after the one she boarded at the station, but she had to get back to her dorm and change into her uniform. She wore the shirt she bought yesterday with a pair of capris and carried the notebook in her bag.

She got a few curious glances – probably because of how she as a teenager was dressed on a school day, but no one asked any questions. No one seemed to recognize her either; and even if they did, the whole 'U.A. is a boarding school now' thing meant that the students that went there wouldn't (in theory) ever commute there unless it was a special occasion. Well, that and the fact she wasn't on her normal train too. The regulars she always rode in the same car with might have noticed if she was.

It felt a little lonely making the trek back. Nowadays she always went together to and from class with at least a few other kids. Contrast that with the relative silence of a rush hour train: No one to chat with, nothing to listen to outside her phone – and she had to stay in it for almost an _hour_. And there was nothing else to do but go straight to the school after she reached the station unless she wanted to get a snack. Thank god for unlimited data plans.

There wasn't any fanfare as she got back to campus and went through the front gate. The sensors inside it read her ID and that was that. Maybe if she did this a few weeks ago, she would've run into one of the last straggling reporters itching for the scoop on U.A.'s new boarding system; but it seemed they finally gave up after barely anyone entered or left anymore.

A few kids were already outside; some taking walks, some jogging, and some just getting a breath of fresh air. Jirou passed them as she made a beeline for the Class 1-A dorm building. She gave a small nod to a few she recognized, but no one else paid her any mind.

She took a quick sweep as she walked into her class building. Some of the guys usually got up early to exercise before class, so a few people missing made sense. She said hi to everyone on the first floor. Ashido told her she really missed out on Yaoyorozu's study session. Jirou said she'd go next time. Iida welcomed her back and asked how she was doing. She said she was feeling pretty good. Hagakure asked if she'd finished "that thing with her parents" (looks like Kaminari or Mineta spilled the beans – thanks, guys). Jirou said it was all taken care of.

Buuuut as much as she'd like to stay for awhile and keep chatting, she had to get in her uniform. Some of the others were wearing theirs. She'd already eaten, so she might as well get hers too. So she headed up the elevator and into her dorm. The first order of business was to get her notebook somewhere safe. It was a bit awkwardly bent when she removed it from her bag, but it was easy enough to straighten out. And it wasn't like it was going to affect the contents inside.

She threw it in a record sleeve: No One Can Ever Know by The Twilight Sad. A bit on the nose, but at least there was enough of a connection so she wouldn't forget where it was. Too bad she was the only one who would find any humor in it.

A phone could be hacked or stolen easily, but she doubted anyone would go after her vinyls. It wasn't likely that anyone else on campus had anything that could even play them. And most of them weren't anything valuable that a potential thief would think they could pawn off for a good chunk of change. It was another layer of security, and probably the best she could do short of hiding it under the floorboards.

The sleeve went back on the shelf. She took off her casual clothes and threw on her uniform, then headed back down the elevator and left for the main building together with everyone else. She chatted with the other girls. It was like she'd never left in the first place. Time ticked by until it was time to go to class. Then everyone still in the dorm building headed out.

It was just another day.

* * *

The scuffs Bakugou and Todoroki had from their training were the first things anyone mentioned.

Ashido led the charge with commenting on Bakugou's appearance. Kaminari piped in that Todoroki wasn't any better. And yep, that provisional training really roughed him up too, didn't it. Jirou could safely say she didn't envy either of them there. Kinda weird seeing scrapes and bruises this early in the morning. People would usually take a quick trip to Recovery Girl and get it taken care of ASAP instead of letting them heal naturally.

Iida didn't know where Uraraka and Tsuyu were, but it looked like they at least told Yaoyorozu. The two of them hadn't been in the dorm building when Jirou got back. But no one else was worried, so she didn't think too much of it herself. Probably meant their excused absence was them doing an internship too.

Huh. Kirishima was a no-show too. He was one of the guys who would sometimes jog in the morning, so him not being in the dorm wasn't actually that weird either. Though the fact that Iida didn't mention him probably meant that Kirishima told him ahead of time.

Which was fine! He wasn't the one Jirou was worried about, anyway. Because... Well...

Midoriya looked like hell, to put it lightly.

He wasn't injured or anything, but Jirou knew full well that wasn't the only type of pain that existed. He was hunched over his desk, staring down. But there wasn't anything there for him to focus on. His heart rate was elevated. His breathing was slightly heavier. The palpable anxiety emanating from him eclipsed anything else in the room as far as Jirou was concerned.

And it was more than a little tempting to go over and ask just what the hell happened.

A few of the other kids seemed to notice this, though maybe not the complete inner turmoil part. Mineta and Ashido in particular peppered him with questions about his internship as cheerily as she'd ever seen them. Though they decided it would probably be best to leave him alone after they realized he was giving the same apathetic groan of a response each time. They probably thought internships really were that exhausting. Jirou knew better, but she wasn't going to correct them.

After all, it's not like there was anything she could do for him either.

* * *

All she could do was work on herself.

Which meant getting stronger.

That was her goal for now.

She was one of the weakest in class when she got to U.A.. The only people she did better than in the initial evaluation were Hagakure, Mineta, and Midoriya, the latter of which had long since made it to the upper ranks of the class in terms of power. Sure, that was because said test was biased in favor of those who could use their quirks to augment their physical strength, but that wasn't an excuse when others like Ojiro and Ashido managed to score well even while barely able to use theirs.

Was she jealous? A little. But it didn't matter how she compared to her classmates as much as it did actual villains. If nothing else, she wanted to be confident she could take those thugs she, Yaoyorozu, and Kaminari faced back at USJ on her own. They were the type she'd probably have to face if she encountered any during her next bout of field training. And she had to be at least as strong as them before she could even _think_ of taking on villains with any level of notoriety.

U.A. had a gym – multiple gyms, actually. During free training she usually just went with cardio on one of the treadmills and chatted with whoever was next to her. Or she chilled on her phone while do the bare minimum of work on one of the weight machines no one ever used. Lazy, but it was an easy time-waster and she didn't exactly have excess stores of energy like _some_ of her classmates.

But she couldn't afford to waste time like that anymore.

She was weak. She knew she was weak. Hatsume's gadgets and the other tech built into her costume helped with that, but earthquakes and shock waves alone wouldn't be much help if whoever she was fighting could get in close-enough for hand-to-hand combat. Her jacks couldn't do much beyond pierce, stretch, and channel her heartbeat; and Togata-senpai showed her just how easy it would be to use them against her if her opponent was way stronger than her. And she needed to cover as many of her bases as she could before villains attacked U.A. again ( _if_ they attacked again; best not to jinx it).

But man, where to even _start_?

She wasn't Midoriya. She didn't have a teacher she could go to for special one-on-one training. If she were to choose someone, it would probably be Present Mic just because of the similarity in their quirks. But she wouldn't even know what ask beyond how to better train her sound output. And said sound output was probably fine for what it was – she needed to increase her other physical capabilities in order to make the best use of it.

Her lobes were an obvious choice to work on. She didn't know how much weight she could carry, or how much force it would take to tear them (since she rarely bothered with more than small weights). They were thin and nowhere near as strong as Tsuyu's tongue, but said tongue was probably the best idea of what her lobes could do should they reach their max potential. Whipping her jacks without any sound behind it was an alright attack against little things like drones, but it wasn't anything she could reasonably use against actual villains one-on-one yet.

But other than that, she wasn't sure what to even do for actual attacks. Maybe learn some martial arts? She'd have to ask someone if she decided to go that route. She knew there was a judo club, though it was populated almost entirely by Gen Ed kids – not that there was anything wrong with being one; but she knew that most, of not all, of them wanted to get in the hero course eventually. And trying to join them would probably make things more than a tad awkward.

Then again, her feelings were nothing compared to the ever-looming threat of whatever Midoriya was going to face in the future. All for One was going to break out of prison. He knew Midoriya had One for All. And there was no way that Midoriya would be strong-enough to take him by the end of the year. She wasn't even sure he'd be able to use all of One for All's power by the time they graduated.

But if there was any way she could even give him even _slightly_ better odds, she had to do it.

Because, well, there was an actual chance she _could_ help _him_.

The more she thought about that conversation with Gran Torino, the _more_ insane a task she realized helping _All Might_ would be. There was only about a year and a half left tops. Jirou was not going to be at the level of an experienced pro hero in a _year_ and a _half_. She had no leads on who this villain could potentially be. She had no leads on where it could happen. In all likelihood, she wasn't even gonna be anywhere _near_ All Might when he'd have that encounter. And she obviously couldn't try and avoid that by puppy-guarding him 24/7. And even if she did: If Sir Nighteye really wasn't ever wrong, what if _that_ was what would get All Might killed?

Sure, she'd still keep her ears open. And sure, she'd keep researching if she found any new leads. But with nothing else to truly go off, everything she did would just be another shot in the dark.

There weren't any downsides to getting stronger, so obviously that was the way to go right now since she didn't exactly have a _plan_ to work with. And she couldn't just make one of her own. She wasn't a strategist. Information gathering? Obviously her thing. But actually _using_ that information? She'd only just started working on that when she came to U.A.. And even then, she'd been coasting and letting other people do the thinking for her during team exercises.

If it were up to Jirou, the first thing to do would be to tell people who had an actual chance of stopping it. Endeavor, Hawks, the other staff at U.A. not already in the know – making some kind of large-scale announcement would obviously cause mass panic, but letting a select few heavy-hitters know about Sir Nighteye's prediction would increase the odds would be able to figure out who or _what_ was supposed to take All Might out. Then they could do _something_ to actually _stop_ it.

But All Might hadn't told anyone outside his circle for a reason. Jirou didn't know what that reason was, but a man who'd been doing heroics longer than she'd been _alive_ would probably be a better judge of when and whom to tell extra-sensitive information like that to. So glaring logistical issues of a high schooler trying to lead experienced professionals into potentially mortal combat aside, that meant no telling Aizawa-sensei to be ready for Japan's greatest supervillain to break out of Tartarus. And no asking Destegoro about any possibility to get a hero bodyguard specifically for one person. And no telling any _other_ heroes that it would _probably be a good idea_ to be on _**extra-high alert**_ wherever All Might was for the next year and a half.

Which didn't exactly leave her with many options.

Gran Torino, Sir Nighteye, and every other adult in the know seemed to think All Might getting killed was inevitable. And Jirou doubted she'd be able to come up with a plan any of them would be willing to follow. If Midoriya knew too (or found out soon; hopefully), he'd obviously want to stop it too, which made it two kids versus a foresight quirk that had never once been wrong ever. If Bakugou was in the know too, that would make three of them.

Three kids.

In high school.

With nothing but provisional hero licenses.

Had to come up with a plan to stop a villain from _killing Japan's former number one hero_.

Because otherwise, _**a villain was going to kill Japan's former number one hero**_.

And just... she wasn't any kind of math whiz and there weren't even numbers to calculate, but god _dammit_ those odds were terrible.

Other heroes didn't know what was going to happen, so just relying on them and hoping for the best wasn't going to work. Changing the future required knowing about it in the first place. That meant the only people who _could_ do that were people in the know.

She wasn't even an optimist, but what _choice_ did they _have_?-

 _Dee dee-dee dee deeeee..._

Jirou's phone alarm sounded snapped her back into reality.

She'd set it to 18:15. 19:00 was the latest clubs could stay, so heading out a little earlier would let her avoid running into anyone else for the most part. And the people she would see wouldn't be anyone she knew; and she doubted they would stop her to ask any questions. Maybe she'd run into a teacher, but it wasn't against the rules for U.A. students to use the gyms of their own volition after class. It's just that most didn't bother since only the hero kids _needed_ exercise and they got more than enough of that during class.

She stopped the treadmill and hopped off. Then took a big swig of water and a few deep breaths to clear her head. Her legs already felt like jelly even after just an extra two hours of on-and-off running. Her clothes were damp from all the sweat. She didn't even wanna _think_ about how it would feel as she did it with other exercises. Especially the ones that dealt with upper body strength. Looks like here noodle arms were gonna come back to bite her.

There were a few bots that worked for the basics in combat. Some for hand-to-hand. Others for various weapons. And they were made of much stronger stuff than the robots in the entrance exam or sports fest 5k, so she doubted she'd be able to destroy them even if she wanted to. Maybe she's take one on on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday would probably be open too. Though all three in a row might be a little much.

She stopped in the locker room for a quick shower and blow dry. She wasn't sure when the janitors or whoever washed their non-hero gym uniforms, but she'd know if hers still smelled funky tomorrow.

And speaking of tomorrow: she wasn't sure what she was gonna do about that. Tuesday's last class was P.E., which meant leaving the locker room to go back to the dorm together with other girls. She felt bad enough that this arrangement meant she would always make a beeline for the gym instead of walking back with Yaoyorozu like she had been (though she was glad Yaoyorozu was nice enough to accept "hey Yaomomo I got something to take care of go on without me" as a reason without questioning it). But the girls always made the journey from gym to dorm as a collective. And they always waited if someone needed to take a few extra minutes. Ashido and Hagakure would probably grill her if she tried to ditch it with some lame excuse.

It wasn't like Jirou wanted to do this whole training thing alone or anything. Exercising by herself sucked. But she wasn't going to be the one to ask anyone to stay with her. If she managed to stick to the plan, she'd be staying after school _every day_ for _**hours**_. And on top of that, she wasn't one of the kids who usually went off to do their own thing. Normally she just went home and hung out with the others. Now she was staying late by herself alone.

It shouldn't be too alarming as long as she stayed normal otherwise, right? Shouldn't be too hard to just socialize like she had been with the time she had left. And if anyone asked, she was going to try for an internship next year and she wanted to prepare in advance. Because man, the intern crew had guts to do that as _freshmen_.

...Which was pretty flimsy reasoning, all things considered. But it's not like they had any reason to doubt her. If someone pressed, though, she could always say she saw a hero-vs-villain showdown and it made her realize how much catching up she had to do. She'd have to look for any incidents that happened in her hometown and choose from them then. And she'd have to come up with an excuse for why she was there to witness it in the first place. And one for why she wasn't in any of the photographs or videos. Even though she _reeeeally_ doubted they'd treat the conversation like a cross examination, she knew better than to leave any of her bases uncovered.

Man, fake alibis were hard work.

But the only alternatives were being cagey about information (bad idea) or telling them the truth (even worse idea). She was from Shizuoka. She'd spent most of the day in _Yamanashi_. Talking about Gran Torino was off-limits for obvious reasons. Hanging out with Usa would seem like a safe subject at first glance, but Jirou would have no way of limiting the details of their meeting should the stars align and Usa somehow find herself talking to someone from Class A.

Actually, she should probably make sure Usa wouldn't tell anyone that they met at all. Not that Jirou didn't like hanging out with her – but information had it's own way of making its way down the weirdest grape vines. Strangers didn't recognize her when she wasn't in her school uniform (and even when she was, they only saw her as some random kid from U.A.), but all it would take was one person saying the wrong thing at the wrong time to blow her cover story into tiny smithereens.

Not that she should even have to plan for the possibility of someone looking through her texts and asking about a random friend from middle school.

Or any of her classmates meeting a girl living in another prefecture who wasn't even going to be a hero.

Or anyone pressing her that hard to begin with.

…

Anyway, people would probably think _Jirou_ doing something like 'super secret solo training' would be weird and maybe even funny, but it shouldn't raise any red flags on its own. Writing down everything in her notebook helped her shove those thoughts to the back of her mind, so she probably wasn't acting any different than normal (and she'd been paying a lot of attention to what she was doing and why). So if anyone saw or found out, they'd probably just think of it as her trying to do some self-improvement.

Heck, maybe they'd be inspired to work out more after school too. And in a perfect world, everyone else in her class would follow her lead too (minus the feeling of impending doom, of course). They were all getting stronger at a steady rate, but doing even more couldn't hurt, right? Especially when their class of freshmen had somehow encountered actual villains. Twice.

Obviously Jirou alone wouldn't be much help against the Villain Alliance right how. She was just one person, and she wasn't particularly talented (compared to everyone else in the hero program, at least). But any amount of assistance was better than no assistance. Nineteen kids together were going to be able to do more than just one alone. So if anything, she should be trying to get everyone else to push past their limits – even more than what Aizawa-sensei normally made them do.

Which, well, she obviously couldn't force anyone to do. She wasn't a teacher. She didn't have any authority over the others. And she didn't have any way to try and 'scare them into action' besides telling them what Gran Torino told her or making up some other tinfoil conspiracy. Which was a _stupid_ idea and no one anyone in their right mind would ever seriously consider. And asking anyone out of the blue to come train with her for hours after school every day would just set off warning bells. Which meant all she had was herself and her own self-discipline. If she was lucky, maybe it would motivate someone else. But that was the most she could hope for.

So for now? Plus ultra. That's all she _could_ do.

Because... well...

...

She was really going in circles, wasn't she.

She should stop doing that.

But she knew she wasn't the _worst_ in class when it came to overthinking things.

* * *

That distinction belonged to Midoriya.

She'd hoped Midoriya's apathy and exhaustion on Monday were gonna be temporary, but the days after made it clear that wasn't the case.

He just got worse. Anxiety festered inside him. He clearly wasn't getting enough sleep. He often didn't finish his food. The teachers had to call his name multiple times for him to even register that it was his turn to read. He almost drowned during hero training once.

Aizawa-sensei was even ready to stop his internship if it got any worse.

Though Jirou had a sneaking suspicion that that was the _worst_ possible thing he could do. Midoriya's exhaustion was almost entirely emotional. And a lot of it comprised of what seemed to be guilt. If this mental strain was caused by something he saw, removing him from his internship was going increase it exponentially.

Though leaving him to his own devices wouldn't be much better.

Jirou needed to tell him what she knew.

He needed to know she knew about his quirk.

And he needed to know she was willing to do whatever she needed to to help him.

But now wasn't the right time.

To even breech that subject, she had to get him alone. Then she had to tell him what she knew.

And she knew better than to confront him over something he clearly didn't want anyone to know about while he was in this state. Despite what she'd observed, he was actually doing a pretty good job functioning (distractions aside); but that didn't mean it was a good time to unload on him. He felt guilty about something now. He'd feel even guiltier that he wasn't even able to protect All Might's secret. And it would open up the possibility that _other_ people knew too. Which would just make him paranoid on top of all that.

Sigh.

Midoriya wasn't the only one who had problems. There were a fair number of kids in Class A with baggage their own baggage:

Aoyama went out of his way to avoid people despite unequivocally being the loneliest member of Class A. Part of it had something to do with his belt – he was the only kid in class that _needed_ support gear to help guide his quirk. And because of it, he seemed to think he was nowhere near on par with everyone else in class.

Uraraka had a metric fuckton of latent anxiety and was hell bent on pretending that nothing but happy emotions exist. Something had been a little off about her ever since the midterms, which Ashido seemed to think was a crush; but honestly, it sounded more like a bad feeling than any springtime of youth nonsense. It reminded Jirou of her dad's gut instincts in a way, though she had no idea what it was for. And Jirou had a feeling Uraraka didn't know either.

Bakugou was wired almost _constantly_ and did whatever he could to make sure any feelings he considered 'weak' were covered by anger, grouchiness, yelling, and more anger – even if he _had_ cooled down a bit. His heartbeat always spiked whenever they had lessons that involved getting captured or restrained. His nightmares were so common that Jirou literally filtered his reactions out entirely when she slept now. Though if nothing else, at least that fight he and Midoriya had after the license exam set his mind a little more at ease.

Iida was always afraid that one of them would go missing. A stern expression would always flash across his face whenever the tally came up short. He even counted the kids in Class B when they were in the same area. The forced retirement of his brother still weighed heavily on him. And while everyone who went to U.A. knew that hero work was dangerous, Iida was one of the few who _truly_ grasped what was at stake. He was lucky his studious nature and 'class prez instincts' distracted him enough from going down a mental rabbit hole of his own.

Tokoyami was- Jesus Christ where to even _begin_.

Even the more relaxed and easygoing classmates had their own concerns: Shouji often appeared to be a blank slate, but he laser focused on any unfamiliar noises. Tsuyu seemed unflappable, but she kept a worried eye on kids that were sick or injured. Mineta was, well, Mineta; but he always got antsy whenever they left campus now.

If someone named a classmate of hers, Jirou could tell them what nervous behaviour that student gained since the beginning of the school year. Every. Single. One.

They were all affected by it, even if they didn't realize it. Even if they didn't acknowledge it. Even if they didn't put two and two together.

Point being: Almost everyone came into U.A. bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. And part their education was supposed to ease them into learning the grim realities almost all heroes would have to face at some point in their careers. But Class A was thrown into it directly. Twice. With death was a real possibility in both cases. In places that were supposed to be _safe_. Only an idiot would think they would be completely unaffected.

But what could Jirou do about it? What could she do for _any_ of them?

Nothing, that's what.

People with problems did what they could to hide them. And the only reason she knew what she knew was because of what she heard behind closed doors. She could only listen to their problems, not fix them. And even if she offered to help, the chances that it would do any good were next to zero. Telling them just what she knew would make them close themselves off even more, which would make things even worse. And Jirou wouldn't be able to live with herself if she was the reason someone got expelled, or _killed_.

She'd long-since learned that it was best just to leave other people alone. Everyone had their own coping mechanisms and they seemed to be working well-enough. She might tell a teacher if she was completely absolutely 100% sure that they were going to hurt themselves or do something that would otherwise get themselves killed, but anything less than that wasn't worth the classwide paranoia that would inevitably follow.

Jirou might've at least asked Midoriya how he was feeling if they were closer. But she had enough tact to at least hold off on it until he didn't have so much on his plate. Obviously something happened that day, but whatever it was he wasn't venting to anyone else – for better or worse. If he wanted to confide in someone, he'd do it himself. Or maybe one of his closer friends would press him. Or maybe nothing would happen and he'd just decompress overtime once he wasn't so overloaded.

She even wrote it down in her notebook on a new page, drawing a new picture overtop as well:

 _I still haven't told Midoriya what I know yet. The internship's hitting him hard. Better not make things worse. I'll tell him when he's feeling better._

Yeah, the internship was the reason he was like this. It wasn't like it was gonna last forever.

There wasn't anything in the news about him or Sir Nighteye's office, so Jirou had no way of knowing what happened unless Midoriya started mumbling about it under his breath. And it also meant the incident probably wasn't over yet. Hopefully he'd get closure before the internship itself ended.

She could wait until then.

He was training under All Might's former sidekick, after all.

He'd be okay.

* * *

Thankfully, as predicted, no one seemed too concerned those first few days when Jirou came through the front door a couple hours after pretty much everyone else.

They had homework. The kids on dinner duty did their thing. Some of the slackers had the TV on. It was just about time to eat, so everyone was on the ground floor. About half of her classmates were sitting in the dining area. Most of the others were lazing on the couches. Some were looking at their phones. Some were talking. A few of them were even getting some of their homework done ahead of time. Jirou pulled her jack away from the door, and was careful not to make too much noise as she grabbed the handle and gently pulled it open.

Yep. No cuts in conversation. No comments about the door. Nothing about her. Just a few glances from people who then went right back to whatever they were doing. Good.

Class A tended to go back to the dorms together in batches, but it was pretty common for a kid or two to fly solo on any given day. Tokoyami sometimes went up to the roof (though more recently, Aoyama often went up with him). Shouji and Kouda too sometimes. Sometimes someone would forget their bag, homework, jacket, or whatever else and rush back to the main building to grab it before the locks automatically activated. Sometimes they'd want to go ahead or hang back or go for a jog do whatever else.

Point being: someone (her) coming back this late wasn't going to set off any warning bells. Heck, Kirishima and Ojiro got back after her yesterday. As long as everyone was in the building by dinner, no one would question it.

Speaking of which: Food time (soon). She took a look at what spots were still open.

There were a few of them that tried to always sit at the same table, but most of them just sat wherever while tending to gravitate toward their respective friend groups. Midoriya usually hung around Iida, Uraraka, and/or Todoroki. Kaminari usually sat with Sero or Mineta. Jirou herself tended to sit near Yaoyorozu, and that's whose table she grabbed a seat at.

Which was all well and good. Yaoyorozu, Tokoyami, and Shouji were chatting about something or other. Jirou injected herself into the conversation when she found an opportunity. Time passed. Dinner was ready. Everyone got their food. Jirou got a second helping. She didn't have much of an appetite, but eating more should give her more energy, right?

It was nice just chilling like this. She chatted between bites of her food. No one was talking about anything heavy – just class, homework, heroes, and some stuff trending on twitter. The atmosphere was peaceful and relaxed. It didn't seem like anyone was stewing or anxious – enough that it really stuck out as abnormal, anyway.

Though all good things must come to an end, she supposed.

The class usually had a quick 5-minute meeting on Sunday to distribute who got what chores. They were generally assigned in pairs. Anyone who wanted to do something in particular got to choose first. Anyone not present got assigned chores at random (and usually got scheduled for an extra shift or two – thanks guys); Bakugou and Todoroki were going to be stuck doing that until they got their licenses, and Jirou was gonna be in the same boat this week. The people left who didn't care either picked from what was left, or got assigned at random themselves.

So tonight, Jirou had dish duty with Kaminari.

Which wasn't a bad thing. Kaminari did his chores just like the rest of them. And given their recent trend of not having one-on-one conversations with each other at all, the two of them would probably finish pretty fast with nothing to distract them.

Jirou got a head start after most of the class had thrown their dishes in the sink. She turned on the tap and started rinsing of the plates that still had a lot of stuff on them. Kaminari was chatting with Kirishima, but he'd probably get up and join her when the last of them finished eating. A few more minutes passed and he did just that. Jirou scooched over to the other half of the sink. Kaminari grabbed a sponge and squirted some dishwashing liquid on it. Jirou grabbed a towel.

Kaminari scrubbed. Jirou did the final rinse and dry. Neither of them said anything to each other. Instead Kaminari bantered back and forth with his normal crew. Jirou stuck a jack in her phone, and used the other one to start up one of her playlists; she'd done it enough times that she didn't need to look at the screen unless she had something she wanted to listen to in particular.

Kaminari's conversation soon died out. Jirou focused on finishing the chore. They worked without saying anything. Which was fine. They both knew how to do dishes. They both knew what the other preferred doing. It wasn't hard to fall into a steady rhythm.

Then she noticed a glance in her peripheral vision.

Then a second.

Kaminari exhaled through his nose.

He clearly wanted to say something.

It wasn't the first time he'd been like that. Probably wasn't going to be the last either. And while Jirou didn't consider herself to be a mind reader, she had a few ideas of things he could want to discuss – most of which Jirou would have to be an idiot to go along with.

It wasn't like she was going out of her way to ignore him. And it wasn't like she refused to respond whenever he _did_ say something (because, y'know, going mute during a team exercise or regular group conversation was just dumb). Really, she _wanted_ to talk to him again. Because he _was_ a good guy and they _did_ get along really well before this whole silent period. They always walked to the station together after school, bantered with about everything under the sun, and talked in class using _Morse code_. Not that she couldn't do that with a lot of her other classmates (well- besides the Morse code), but Kaminari wasn't replaceable. _No_ one in Class A was.

But if this was how things were gonna work out, this was how things were gonna work out. If Kaminari didn't want to let it go, Jirou wasn't going to try and make him. Because that would only encourage him. And they didn't need to fight again. All it would do is stress them both out and not resolve anything because Jirou wasn't going to be the one spilling secrets this heavy.

So silence it was.

"Jirou."

…

Huh.

So he actually said something. It was the first time he'd directly addressed her alone in days – weeks if she didn't count team exercises or conversations involving at least one other person.

Might as well respond.

"Kaminari."

He began tapping on a bowl with a fingernail. The sound reverberated out of the water.

 _You're back late._

She lowered her own voice to a level only he'd be able to hear.

"Yeah."

 _Again._

Jirou's eyebrows furrowed.

"I guess."

 _You really missed out on the study party before. Even I managed to learn a few things._

Great. Good for him. Except there was a reason he was tapping it out instead of shouting it from the rooftops.

"I'll manage."

 _Yaomomo was really bummed you didn't show up._

That was days ago. Yaoyorozu didn't hold a grudge. She was one of the most understanding kids in their class. Jirou already apologized for not telling her she'd made plans ahead of time. Neither of them had mentioned it since then. It really wasn't a big deal.

Though the bigger question was: why he was only telling her this _now_?

"What's this about?"

 _Todoroki and Bakugou had those remedial lessons._

 _Kirishima, Uraraka, Midoriya, Tokoyami, and Tsuyu-chan all went and got internships._

Oh for the love of-

"Do you _seriously_ think I'm doing either of those."

Kaminari snorted.

 _You went off campus. Alone._

"Yeah. To see my parents."

 _Not just that._

"Yes just that."

 _Did something happen?_

Was it really that obvious?

"No. Everything was normal."

 _Is everything alright at home?_

...Okay, that came out of left field.

"Well yeah. Why wouldn't it be?"

 _You haven't come home with anyone else after school since you got back._

"I did on Tuesday."

 _You know what I mean._

Sigh. She should've known Kaminari would suspect something so soon.

"Look, I'm just getting some extra exercise."

 _Your parents aren't threatening to take you out, are they?_

"No."

 _Then why?_

"Why aren't you?"

Kaminari paused for a moment. His eyebrows furrowed. He glanced at her. Then went back to scrubbing the forks bunched in his hand.

 _It's not like we have any big tests soon._

She didn't respond to that. For the first few seconds it was because she was trying to decide which excuse would be the most believable to him. The next few after was deciding that anything she said _then_ would sound suspicious.

Kaminari handed her a plate, then another, then a glass. She dried and placed them in the rack in turn.

Kaminari broke the silence by tapping on another bowl.

 _Is it about All Might?_

God dammit.

"Not everything is about All Might."

She couldn't blame him for thinking that, though. Everything they'd gone through that year was because the villains were after All Might. They wanted to kill him. They wanted to kill the people he had any connection to. And since he couldn't fight anymore, crime rates were spiking and everything was going to hell in a handbasket. It would make sense to be worried about him. Lots of people were.

But really, it was all about Midoriya now. Midoriya, the successor. Midoriya, the user of One for All. Midoriya, the carrier of a legacy spanning over a century. Midoriya, the _freshman_ interning under All Might's _**former sidekick**_. Midoriya, the hero intern who already had something eating away at him. Midoriya, the U.A. student who would have a bigger target on his back than everyone else if the wrong people found out.

But most importantly: Midoriya, the one who had to defeat All for One once and for all.

It wasn't like All Might was chopped liver or anything. It's just that... well... she'd rather not go down _that_ line of thinking until she was alone. She hadn't come up with any new ideas. All the overthinking involved did was stress her out, and no one needed that kind of negativity right now.

And regardless, Jirou knew she was nowhere near the top of the list of 'people who need someone to talk to _now_.'

"All Might's fine. If you want to worry about anyone, worry about the intern crew."

Really just Midoriya; but drawing attention to _just_ him would be stupid.

 _What's wrong with them?_

"Nothing I know about." Lies. "But they got a whole extra workload. They don't look it, but they're really tired. I think it's wearing on them. Heck, add in Bakugou and Todoroki. It's gonna be awhile before they get any days off."

Kaminari shot her a flat look.

 _You're exercising for hours after class every day now because a few of our guys are tired._

Jirou snorted.

"I'm doing it because I wanna do what they're doing." Not really. She liked having free time and lazing about. It's just that working towards a nebulous _something_ let her feel like she wasn't just dead weight spinning her wheels overthinking the same thing for weeks on end. And it made for a pretty good cover story. Because Kaminari knew better than anyone else in their class that Jirou wouldn't just start doing extra training on her own out of nowhere. "But I know I'm not ready for it yet if even _they're_ having trouble with it."

Losing a few hours every day was fine. Losing a few days every week was not. She knew full well she didn't have the endurance _or_ the drive to actually work out in the field while still going to school, even if it would be more useful as experience than just fighting robots. Panic was a good motivator, but she'd be lucky if what she was doing _now_ didn't burn her out in a month or so. Better to play it safe now than have a meltdown later.

 _So you got rejected from getting an internship, is what you're saying._

She'd have facepalmed at that had her hands not been full of cutlery, but _boy_ was it tempting. Lucky her for having an iota of self-restraint.

"My parents aren't heroes, dude."

 _I never said they were._

Jirou grimaced.

"Look, I didn't go looking for an internship." She shoved a plate onto the rack. "I just wanted to go home and spend some time with my folks, okay?"

 _And yet now you don't get home until hours after everyone else._

"Going home has _nothing_ to do with why I'm doing more training now." It really didn't. Her mom knew something was up, but she didn't say anything that factored into this. Why was Kaminari so fixated on her home life, anyway? "If I want a chance at getting an internship next year, I need to stop slacking off. That's all there is to it."

A pause.

A stare.

Kaminari's mouth pressed into a thin line.

"You know what? Fine. Keep being all weird and secretive. See if I care," Kaminari grumbled under his breath. Jirou wasn't aware that the mere act of handing over a cup could be so passive-aggressive.

A minute passed in silence.

Then two.

Yep.

He was pissed.

And Jirou'd be lying if she said she wasn't irritated too. Because not only was Kaminari trying to get more information out of her when she clearly told him no before: he was doing it while she was _trying_ to appear totally _normal_ and _not paranoid_ about the inevitable breakout from one of the most secure prisons in the world and death of one of the greatest heroes the world has ever known. And _clearly_ she was failing on _some_ level seeing as how they were _talking about this_ _ **now**_.

Seriously, why couldn't he just _let it go_?

…

He _was_ the one to start the conversation, though. And it wasn't even about All Might at first. And he also had enough sense not drag in anyone else. And had enough sense to talk to her 'alone', while not leaving a paper trail or giving anyone else a reason to be suspicious. A quick glance back confirmed no one was looking at the two of them; and no one had approached Jirou or acted weird around her at all in the past few days either, which meant he hadn't told them anything or even brought it up.

And... well... she appreciated that. Kaminari was a good guy – he really was. And his quirk would be really useful if they ever had to fight a villain (especially now that he could actually _direct_ his electricity). But that was the same case for literally everyone else in their class. The only thing that really set him apart in this case was that he had something resembling an idea of what was going on. And even then it was just from the tidbits that Jirou had let slip. And Jirou obviously wasn't going to give him anything else to latch onto if she could help it.

All Might had managed to keep his secrets secret because he only told people that had to know. He, the man who was probably the most well-known face in all of Japan, somehow never had a single leak of information. Even his _age_ was unknown. The only reason Jirou herself managed to fall into the thick of it was because no one had ever thought to take her quirk into consideration and prepare accordingly. And Kaminari was somewhat aware of it too, even if he lacked anything he could use to put two and two together and come to the same conclusions she did.

She knew he had only the best intentions, but he wasn't a part of this.

And if Midoriya wanted either of them to know, he would've told them by now. And considering _they_ almost accidentally exposed All Might's secret all those months ago, Jirou wouldn't blame him if they were at the bottom of his 'most trustworthy people to tell secrets in case of an emergency' list. And it was bad enough that Jirou did all that _other_ stuff behind his back.

But that didn't mean the two of them couldn't talk about things completely unrelated to it. They were still friends, right? There were plenty of things they could talk about.

"Hey, you know the Spark Sisters, right?" Her voice went back to its normal volume. No sense in staying quiet when she was just trying to make small talk. Regular small talk about heroes. Nothing weird about it.

"Hn."

Well uh... Points for acknowledgment?

"You see that zap whip Akaring's got now? It's pretty cool. Maybe you could ask Hatsume to fix you up something like that. You wanted a sword, right?" Or was it a spear he wanted? Some kind of weapon, at least. That'd be pretty neat.

"Yeah. I guess." Kaminari didn't even bother trying to hide the annoyance in his voice.

Okay fine. Be that way. So much for starting a different kind of conversation and talking like normal human beings.

Jirou wasn't going to push it if he really didn't want to (because even with only a few responses, she could already tell he wasn't going to say much else), but it'd be nice if they could quit it with the silent treatment. Though she doubted that would happen without some kind of miracle. Because nothing else was gonna fix what was making him cranky in the first place. And Jirou wasn't going to try and start conversations if he was going to be like that whenever they were alone (well- in a way; most of the class was still on the ground floor, after all).

Maybe when Midoriya didn't have so much on his plate and she told him what she knew, she'd ask if Kaminari could join in too. But she wasn't going to say anything until she got the okay. In the end, it was Midoriya's call what was okay to talk about and that was that. Not Jirou's. Midoriya's.

Speaking of which, she honed in on Midoriya. He was in a conversation with Iida and some of the others. The news was running a story about a hero stopping a villain on the loose. Said hero was apparently one of Ingenium's former sidekicks, and Iida had spoken to him a few times in person. Midoriya chattered about how his method of apprehending the villain with a spiderweb made of vines was a creative use of his quirk. Mineta mentioned that Sero could probably do that with some practice, and Ashido built off that observation with a Spidertape joke. Talking with friends helped calm the swirling vat of anxiety inside Midoriya; and it helped everyone else too.

Everyone had their own unique set of worries. In Class A there were obvious things like grades, tests, and practical exercises they weren't suited for – things that any kid in their shoes would feel the same about. Then there was the underlying fact that they'd been attacked by villains twice and knew that it could possibly happen a third, which she was sure lingered in the backs of everyone's minds to some degree, even if they weren't aware of it themselves. _Then_ there were things like insecurities and past trauma she could _clearly_ see the aftereffects of, but couldn't do anything about.

Those last ones were the worst by a landslide. And she'd long-since learned that they were the types of problems you _don't_ try and help with.

Not because she didn't want to – things would be _way_ easier if she could be some magic fairy godmother able to fix people's problems with a swish of her earlobes. But that wasn't how reality worked and people generally _didn't_ want their worst fears and memories casually brought up as a conversation topic; and they'd only tell their closest friends or therapist if they had any choice in the matter.

If she tried to coax out those feelings to address them, it would only lead that person shutting themselves off even more. No one liked being hurt. No one liked the effects it had on everything else they did. And if it was so obvious that even someone they could barely call an acquaintance (read: her) could see what they were going through, they'd feel even worse because that meant they really _weren't_ coping as well as they thought.

She really had to wonder what happened to Midoriya that first day of his internship. He left the dorms excited. He came back exhausted. And whatever experience he went through had been eating away at him ever since. But he wasn't allowed to talk about when went on in during his internship – no one was. Maybe it was tougher that he'd expected. Maybe he had to fight a villain that really took a toll on him. Maybe he just got reamed out for not being at All Might's level yet.

Maybe Sir Nighteye told him just what was going to happen to All Might.

But guilt was guilt. It wasn't like she could make any real educated guesses without context.

...

Regardless, the stars had aligned and decided _'no Jirou, you're_ _ **not**_ _telling him you know he's All Might's successor and that you know everything. You waited too long and now you missed your chance. Way to go, dumbass.'_ She couldn't waltz over and ask questions, and she couldn't try and exchange info to make sure they were on the same page. The most she could do is sit back and wait for him to be in just the right emotional state that they could hash things out and be done with it. And who knew when _that_ would be.

Midoriya wasn't the type to flip out by any means, but the last thing he needed was the stress of knowing that someone had managed to learn his secret on top of everything else he was going through. And Jirou didn't even wanna think about what would happen if she let something slip that even he didn't know about. Even with everyone around cooling him down now, his anxiety would come back with a vengeance after a few minutes alone if he wasn't careful. And she needed to catch him while he was alone. In person.

Even in a best-case scenario, texting something ominous like _'we need to talk'_ would leave a paper trail. She didn't think anyone would start rummaging through her phone, but the last thing she needed was someone catching a glimpse of her message history. Or Midoriya asking one of the others about it himself. Ashido might think she had a crush, which Jirou would either have to play along with or come up with a different explanation (and the last thing she needed was to have a whole nother set of lies to keep track of). Iida would question them and ask if everything was alright, which could get him roped in this too. _Kaminari_ would take it as evidence that there _was_ really something else going on, and in a worst-case scenario would either bug Midoriya for answers or go straight to All Might.

Hell, she could probably come up with something for everyone.

And, well, _any_ of those happening would be worse than doing nothing at all.

So that was it. Midoriya had a lot on his mind. Jirou would have to wait until he felt better to bring up everything else. Really, the best thing she could do now was keep her mouth shut and pretend everything was just fine until the timing was right.

She just hoped it wouldn't keep getting worse.

* * *

And thankfully it didn't.

Midoriya stormed off straight to the staff room after classes one day. If Jirou had to hazard a guess, it'd be that he was probably looking for All Might. The only other teacher he could possibly have any business with was Aizawa-sensei, but Aizawa-sensei hadn't told Midoriya to see him later or anything similar, despite what he's said before.

But All Might wasn't in the main building anymore, and she couldn't track him outside once he got far-enough away. The fact that Midoriya then raced out of building all but confirmed that suspicion. But Jirou couldn't track him anymore either without leaving as well and following him like some sort of stalker. Not that following him in meatspace would be any worse that what she'd _been_ doing.

Why would he need to talk to All Might, anyway? Something to do with his internship? One for All? Sir Nighteye? More training? A smack from the combat bot she was facing would bring her back to reality whenever her thoughts got too focused on it. Which served her right since _that's_ what she should've been focusing on.

She wondered what Midoriya was doing about his own limitations. All Might couldn't just punch his way to victory every single time (even if it seemed like it). What what he going to do long-range opponents? Just go so fast that they couldn't get away? She knew he got some new gloves and leg thingies, but those seemed to be just another stopgap to keep him from breaking his bones. Which was a small victory in itself, honestly.

Right now, Jirou herself was focusing on hand-to-hand combat (and weapons-based too), keeping her jacks in a makeshift bun behind her neck. Like pretty much everyone else in the hero program, her quirk was the cornerstone of her fighting style. And like a lot of them, she was screwed when she couldn't use it. So a fair amount of the extra combat training she was doing (with robots, obviously) was to help with her ability to fight close-range. It wasn't that she expected to have to fight Aizawa-sensei anytime soon. More that if she was up against someone sound wasn't effective against, she needed more than just shockwaves and fleshwhips to hold her own. And the multitude of hair ties she used to hold her lobes together helped curb the urge to whip them about at every opportunity. So she had to rely on her fists, legs, and whatever weaponry she could find.

In the end, she decided the glass cannon build wasn't right for her. Gran Torino _did_ say they had time, so it made more sense to work on her strength and endurance after hours than quirk, quirk, and more quirk. Then she'd utilize those gains in class and be stronger for it. That was the plan, at least.

She just hoped Gran Torino was right. There wasn't anything on the news or whatever phone calls she overheard that said otherwise, but she was aware it was a real possibility and that she needed to get as strong as she could as fast as she could.. And she hoped whatever extra power she got from this would be enough to make a difference when shit really hit the fan.

Because if it didn't...

Well...

She pushed those thoughts to the back-burner.

* * *

The first thing Jirou noted when she got back to the dorms that night was the weight that had lifted off Midoriya's chest.

It was easy to guess that he'd talked to All Might, or at least _someone_. People rarely random epiphanies that suddenly fixed their mental state – not that things were _totally_ fine now. But he was at least feeling a little better now. His near shell-shocked expression was gone, at least; even when he wasn't a part of any conversations. He joked around a bit too. Acting more like a normal teenager. On a surface level, he had totally gotten over his funk.

But inside him was a much more subtle dread.

It permeated his actions the next day. He practically _radiated_ determination. He wasn't spacing out in class anymore. He was functioning as well as he ever had. Not that Midoriya was a slouch, but his attacks and movements during their training days had an edge to them now. There was more power behind them. More speed. Not as much precision, but more attempts at trying new things to see what would work.

Almost like he was desperate to...

...

So should she just chance it?

On one hand, he was already feeling a lot better.

On the other, that dread inside him wasn't something she wanted to mess with; especially since there wasn't any real indication of what it was about.

It wasn't about any of their classmates. He wasn't treating any of them differently, or focusing on anyone in particular. He still had his friends he talked with the most. He still had friendly acquaintances he had no problem sharing conversations with. Once in a while someone would ask how he was feeling, but other than that, it didn't seem like anything had changed within his interactions. Well- nothing that gave her any weird vibes, at least.

It could be All Might. She was almost completely certain he was the one Midoriya talked to, though it wasn't like she was gonna ask him to clarify. Midoriya had calmed down, obviously; but All Might seemed to be the one that was invigorated, if she were to be honest. All she could really say there was that Midoriya didn't seem to be in a rush to prepare for any kind of deadline. It wasn't something she could rule out entirely, though.

Last was the internship: most plausible answer, in her opinion. Midoriya'd been wound up ever since he came back to school that first Monday. Maybe it was something Sir Nighteye told him. Maybe it was something he encountered. No one doing an internship could talk about anything not already public knowledge, so she had nothing to actually go off of. All she knew was that he was really worried before, said worry wasn't filling every fiber of his being anymore, and that he was still worried regardless.

He _was_ feeling better, but there were still too many uncertainties for her to feel comfortable just waltzing over there and dumping everything she knew on him. On top of that, his internship was still draining the absolute hell out of him, emotionally or not. Putting more on his plate when it wasn't anywhere near necessary at the moment could send him right back where he was. Maybe.

She needed to tell him eventually. And she would. Really.

But now wasn't the time.

After he was done with his internship, schoolwork would be the only thing taking his attention.

He might still be anxious, but they would have enough time to work things out.

She could tell him she knew about his quirk and the fact that he was All Might's successor.

And that she didn't tell anyone else.

And that she would keep his secret too.

He just needed to finish his internship and they'd be good to go.

It would only be a few more weeks at most.

Then there wouldn't be anything else standing in her way.

She'd do it then.

He'd be okay then.

* * *

 **A/N:** [sad trombone]

I was looking for vinyl albums Jirou could hide her notebook in and now I'm into post rock send help.


End file.
